The Trial of Khan
by bedb
Summary: This is an adventure story..the original plot was actually resolved minus the killing of Carol Marcus, but she shall be dealt with if Kirk can keep out of it. Now Khan has a chance to get a pardon if he helps clean up some bad guys. A trial can be more than a court room drama, it can be a test of resolution. Khan will have many trials before it is over..as for happens
1. Chapter 1

I in no way own any rights to this franchise and do not profit off its use.

Cdr. Marla McGivers entered the cellblock where the criminal Khan was being held and stopped short. She didn't know what she had expected to see, but this was not it. The great and terrifying Khan was half sitting strapped to a gurney with his arms stretched out vein sides up on extensions. Dr, McCoy had permission to take all the blood he needed to save Cdr. Kirk, and strapping Khan down prevented a fight. To keep him quiet a bit, which was what it looked like to her, was forced inside his mouth and was kept in place by a leather strap that circled his head. His only clothing was the sheet that covered his waist. Disheveled and defiant hate burned in his eyes. When he slid his incredible eyes, the palest of blue gray, fury filled them, but the bit kept him quiet, Any attempt to speak stabbed the inside of his mouth and at the corners.

Marla had gotten special permission from Star Fleet to interview the man. As a part of his defense team, she needed to be intimately familiar with him. Approaching the gurney keenly aware of those hard pale eyes on her, she said, "I am Dr. Marla McGivers, I am a psychologist and an attorney. It's my job to keep you live." He glanced away a moment, a look of unmasked contempt on his face, and then back at her.

Getting a chair and placing it beside the gurney, she met his gaze and said, "We are going to take the mouth piece out of your mouth. Any attempt to manipulate me and it will go back in and these sessions are over." She suspected he would behave because according to the report he had not had the bit out in three days. They were feeding him a liquid diet to minimize any contact between him and those who were handling him.

An aide unsnapped the straps at the back of his head and like a horse freeing itself from a bit, Khan spit the mouthpiece out. He looked at McGivers and waited. Marla was a bit surprised that he remained silent even with the horrible device out of his mouth.

"You may speak if you want," she said and took out her recorder.

Khan stared at her without saying anything, and she had the feeling he was studying her with renewed interest. Finally he said, "Thank-you." His voice was perfectly controlled and very masculine could not help but send a shiver up her spine.

It was unexpected and yet expected. Believing it would be a mistake to respond, she began. "I've studied your history, and want to start out by asking you some questions. Is that all right?"

Khan frowned and then asked, "Are we going to tip toe around like dancers on glass?"

She could have said that she didn't know what he meant, but the truth was she knew exactly what he meant. "Very well. Who were your parents?

"I never tried to find out."

"Why?"

"Some things are best left unknown."

"You didn't want to know who they were?"

"They were donors," Khan replied icily, his tone indicating that he did not want to continue this part of the conversation. In spite of his threatening voice, his body was completely relaxed, something Marla had only now noticed. And with a detached eye she allowed herself to view him a little more closely. She expected a man with such a violent past to be scarred, but his skin was flawless.

"You heal without scarring?"

"It appears so," Khan answered, his tone now flat and without emotion. Once more Marla thought he was studying her.

"What do you see?" she asked curiously.

"What do you want me to see?" He stopped a moment, considered it and then said, "I see a woman who wants to pick my brain? Better understand the criminal mind. But I am no ordinary criminal, so how can you apply who I am to the ordinary?"

"All sociopath criminals think they are special," she retorted. He smiled, but it was as close to pure evil as she had ever seen. The smiled never reached his eyes. Deciding he was not going to respond to the taunt, his ego that secure, she said, "I was hired by your defense team to find a way to keep you alive."

He looked amused in earnest now and said, "So many people want me dead, and yet here I am. Why is that?" He glanced down at his strapped arms and said, "Yes, I remember now. I can bring tribbles back from the dead."

"So this is your idea of paradise?" Marla retorted with a touch of sarcasm in her voice. A genuine look of surprise flashed across his face and then vanished into the cold arrogance that was his normal expression.

"Touche, doctor," Khan, remarked almost indifferently, although Marla had seen an honest expression though fleeting.

"I apologize," she corrected herself.

"No, don't. I would rather we speak the truth because this game is boring me."

"The parameters remain, Khan, and attempt to manipulate me will result in you being fully constrained."

"Doctor," Khan replied, clearly bored, "of course I will attempt to persuade you. If all I am to do is answer yes or no, then put that jaw device back in my mouth and go away."

Marla didn't mean to sound huffy, but that was clearly how she sounded even to herself when she sighed. The intensity of his gaze forced her to look away but the moment she dropped her eyes she found herself staring at his chest. It surprised her momentarily. He was as fine a specimen of masculinity as she had seen in a long time.

"It's a control mechanism." Khan remarked coldly.

Meeting his sharp gaze, she answered, "I don't understand."

"Of course you do, doctor. I am confined in as vulnerable a position as possible. It was meant to strip me of my humanity but since I've never considered myself human, it has become an exercise in voyeurism."

"Then perhaps I can get you some clothes," she offered, the topic actually making her uncomfortable. "Since you know I am a part of your defense team, do you have any questions?"

She could see the thoughts flashing across his face and then nothing. "They won't kill me. Doctor. They'll just put me back to sleep until they can find a way to cure or control me. I'm much too valuable to kill."

"Not that valuable."

"You would be surprised …doctor." Changing the subject he asked, "How long do I have your company?"

"An hour today, and then we'll see."

"Don't waste our time then with foolish questions. What do you really want to know?"

When the hour was up Cdr. Marla McGiver gathered her notes and readied to leave, while the senior petty officer moved to attach the mouthpiece that made talking, spitting, yelling, cursing or anything else impossible. It had to be harsh because all of the other gags had been destroyed by the power of his jaws.

While sealing her briefcase she heard the petty officer growl, "Now why the hell did you do that?" She looked up and stared at a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of Khan's mouth and sliding down his chin. He had bitten into the device and cut the inside of his mouth intentionally. Unable to speak now he watched the look of horror grow on her face. He had elicited an emotion from her, a deliberate visceral emotion. He could use that now to win her over and eventually gain his freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

When Cdr. McGiver arrived for her next meeting with Khan, he was clothed and sitting in a chair with his wrists secured by powerful arm bands. Heavily armed guards were keeping a respectful distance but at no time did they take their eyes off their prisoner.

"Good afternoon," Marla greeted politely, but before she could react, Khan was standing with her face between his hands,

"I am not going to hurt you," he growled softly into her ear and kept a careful eye on the armed men.

Too stunned to do anything else, Marla retorted quickly, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

"Let her go!" the senior petty officer shouted. "Let her go!"

Khan staring into the woman's dark eyes said, "There is nothing I can not do to you if I want to, nothing. I can crush your skull or break your neck or…." He stopped and she understood. Whatever Khan wanted to do to her, he could and no one would be able to stop him. Releasing her, he sat back down. "The point, commander, is I have no reason to hurt you."

Shaking, she sat down and waved the guards back. "Don't ever do that again," she warned and then realized that he could just as well spring across the small space separating them and kill her if he wanted. His facial expression told her as much. "You've made your point," she admitted, "you can kill me without a second thought."

"That was not my entire intention," he confessed. "Would it have been as impressionable if I had kissed you?"

She stared at him and for a moment and imagined a kiss instead of his deadly hands on her face. "You need to stop doing that," she said warily.

"Why? Are we not to be honest with one another?"

"Not when it involves you doing something to me," she answered passionately. "I am here to help you stay alive, and I don't appreciate any of this."

"Do you trust me?" he asked curiously, ignoring her impassioned rant.

"Not entirely," she retorted. "How do I know you won't do something against me again?"

"Because I give you my word," he said and looked down at the heavy cuffs on his wrists. "I want them off, and I will do nothing to hurt you."

"The guards believe you will try to escape," she answered and opened her briefcase, the activity helping to settle her nerves. "Now, I need a full account of what happened to you in the company of Admiral Marcus."

"Please," he said and held out his arms towards her.

Marla looked at the bonds and then at the plea in his eyes. Unsure really if she was doing the right thing, but discovering that she wanted to trust him, she called the senior petty officer over and ordered him to free her client.

"Ma'am, that would be a mistake," he argued.

Marla, her eyes locked on Khan's, said, "If need be, shoot him, but until he does something to either harm one of you or escape, free him."

Pointing the muzzle of his weapon at Khan's head, the senior petty officer called one of his men over and had the cuffs unlocked. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing," the petty officer told Khan before he took his place farther back in the cellblock.

Marla her heart still racing fought to control her fear. Maybe freeing him was a mistake. He could kill her now so effortlessly and without passion. He kept his keen eyes on her and finally said, "Thank-you."

"You are welcome," she replied and turned on her recorder. "Now, I need to know everything that happened to you from the time the admiral awakened you."

"May I stand for a moment?" he interrupted and waited for her answer.

Startled by the request, she answered, "Yes…yes, you may."

"Thank-you."

He stood and turned away from her. "This is the first time in weeks that I have not been bound or chained," Khan said and stretched. Twisting his torso, he stretched his spine and body like some magnificent feral cat. His name meant lion and at that moment staring up at him Marla saw the lion at its most magnificent. Then he was seated again in front of her.

"I was disorientated when Marcus first awoke me," he answered and settled back in his chair, legs out stretched, ankles crossed and arms folded across his chest. "He saw me as a tool to use, but he also knew I was one not so easily controlled. He hid my people from me with the promise to destroy them if I did not comply."

"You had that threat hanging over your head from day one?"

"Yes."

"How much time is that?"

He hesitated a moment and then said, "Five years, six months and twenty seven days"

"How did that make you feel?"

Once more a long pause, and then, "Not happy."

She realized the silliness of the question and met his bored gaze. "Then tell me all."

Khan unfolded his arms and leaned forward. "Marcus thought he was so smart. He kept me confined but tried to win me over at first, He was certain Starfleet was going to fight the Klingons, and he wanted my sympathy. He tried to manipulate me and I tried to manipulate him. Two sociopaths playing mind games with each other." Khan smiled. "It was amusing at first."

"Do you think you are a sociopath?"

"That was what I was labeled by the committee that first sealed me in ice." He hissed ice and the snake in the garden effect was chilling. "Do I care about humanity…not really? I care about my people, but then we aren't exactly humanity."

"You are superior to us?"

"Am I not?"

"I don't think so."

"Why? Because we look similar? Any other man who did what I did would be dead by now. Instead I am being kept alive because I am not like everyone else."

"You are very cynical," Marla responded. "We can not put a man to death without a trial. You've not had one."

"Not in this century anyway," he countered.

"Do you want to die?"

He took a deep breath and let the air out slowly. "I want to be free." Sitting forward, holding her eyes with his own, he said, "Do you know how old I am?"

"Mid thirties I would suppose."

"Good enough. The first twenty years of my life I was trained to be what I am now. I was taught how to fight and kill, I was educated by some of the most brilliant minds of my time but always towards war and surviving it. When I finally came to power, I ruled over a quarter of the planet, and I was not an evil man…then. But I could be if needed. When humanity turned against us, it was slaughter. My people were murdered and imprisoned, and that was when I realized we really two different species. And it became fight fire with fire."

The fire in his eyes was scalding hot, the set of his mouth cold and hard. Marla gave him a moment to calm down, to get his breathing under control, to be less intimidating. Finally she said, "That rules you out as a true sociopath."

He cut his eyes towards the guards who had become agitated and said, "Not really." Her sudden shift in the chair drew his eyes back to her. " Did I upset you?"

"No more than you did in the beginning," she admitted.

"I said I would never hurt you, and I mean it. I can not promise I will not try to kiss you."

Marla's eyes widened in surprise. "That is most inappropriate."

"But true. If it frightens you send one of your male colleagues the next time."

"They have more important things to do," she almost stammered. "Promise me you won't try that."

"No, that I won't do," he stated without emotion. "But have no concerns, rape does not interest me."

"A crime that you would not commit?" she taunted rather weakly in order to regain some control of the conversation.

"Yes."

A flash of anger zipped through her body. She didn't like being afraid or defensive, and she hated his arrogance. "Maybe I will have one of the men continue the interview process. You weary me."

A smile creased his face. Khan was going to wring every emotion possible out of her before all was said and done. He would even have her fall in love with him before his fate was sealed in his own blood. There would be no deep freeze without someone on the outside waiting to revive him.

A voice that he had not expected at that precise time echoed over the cellblock, "Who the hell turned him loose?"

"Dr. McCoy is early," Khan remarked as the chief medical officer stormed up and then took half a step backwards when Khan looked directly at him.

"Why are you loose?" the medical officer demanded with just a touch of apprehension in his voice.

"I have him released when I visit," Marla answered and stood up. "I am a part of his defense team."

"Don't you know he could kill you and everyone in this room?" McCoy snapped at her.

"He has assured me he will be on his best behavior," Marla defended her client, while he stood silently behind her with a strange smile on his face.

McCoy did not know what to think, but he had come to the cellblock for another vial of blood and said, "Roll up your sleeve."

"And how is your captain doing?" Khan asked as he rolled up his sleeve and held his arm out.

"I'll have him come see you," McCoy retorted. Taking the blood, he dared meet Khan's gaze and saw nothing remotely human in his eyes. Khan had no soul. Looking at Marla, he said, "You better be careful. I've seen what he can do."

"I am certain I can manage the interviews."

"Yeah, that's what Admiral Marcus thought too," McCoy replied and then threw a cautious eye at Khan, who was flipping the edge of his sleeve back up. "Does Cdr. Spock know you are free?"

"You tell him," Khan said and sat back down.

"I will," McCoy assured him. "You can count on that."

Fearing the worst, Marla sat down and made certain her recorder was still working. There wasn't much on it she could use, but she wanted to make certain she recorded every conversation between the Enterprise personnel and herself. "Do not get into arguments with them."

"That's been rather hard with the metal gag in my mouth."

A part of Marla wanted to leave and avoid a confrontation with the man who had actually brought Khan in, but the professional side of her wanted to make sure he didn't bully Khan….if that was possible.

Within five minutes Cdr. Spock and two red shirts from the Enterprise showed up. He quickly sized up the situation and said, "This is unacceptable." The animosity between him and Khan was palatable in the air. The normally placid Vulcan hated Khan.

"I do not want my client tethered down like an animal."

"And who authorized this?"

"Admiral Talsond of the Judge Advocate General. For whatever time he is with me, I can see him with his hands free and in clothing."

Spock said nothing. He glared at Khan who returned the stare without flinching. Finally Spock said, "I will need to speak with him personally." Turning on his heels, he attacted the attention of the senior petty officer and said, "As soon as she leaves return him to he prescribed security measures."

"Aye, sir, with pleasure."

Marla stayed another half hour, recording Khan's story to share with the rest of his legal team….minus some nonessential dialogue, The moment she stood up to leave the security personnel moved forward to secure him. She turned away unable to watch as they dehumanized him for the sake of their own security. What they didn't realize but she did was…if Khan wanted to kill them, they would die.

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	3. Chapter 3

Khan rarely slept at night, his body not requiring true sleep, but when it was dark and quiet, he could put himself into a light trance to avoid the crushing torture of eternal boredom. There were fewer guards on duty at night and people rarely came through to check on him. The extra straps holding him down were reassurance to the foolish.

Voices brought him to mental attention. Two men were coming and he recognized one of them as one of his guards. The other man was short and reminded him of a weasel.

"So this is the mighty Khan," the short man mused and stripped the sheet off him. "Nice. And you are certain he can raise the dead with his blood?"

"That's what they're doing with that young captain," the guard stated. "Most of the time they take platelets and stuff, but twice they've taken whole blood. He heals faster than any man I've ever seen."

"Why is he wearing that thing?" the man asked and looked closer at the device in Khan's mouth."

"Keeps him real quiet. They say he can persuade you to do whatever he wants."

"Well, we don't want to remove that now, do we?" the man asked rhetorically and set his briefcase on a table beside the gurney. "Let's just see how immortal you are, Mr. Khan."

Strapped down like an animal, Khan could not protect himself from what turned out to be the most horrible pain he had ever experienced in his entire life. Using a laser knife the weasel man literally opened his abdomen and took samples. When he was finished he glued the incision closed with a cellulose product that would dissolve in a few hours.

"So when do I get my money?" the guard asked anxiously.

"When we verify what you've told us," the weasel answered and closed everything up.

The guard looked horrified. "I need that money now. I can't stay here!"

"Not my problem, I'm only a technician." Gazing back down at Khan, he added," You better get him cleaned up. He's bit through his mouth."

The guard looked at the blood on Khan's chin and swore angrily at him. "Fuck him. He murdered hundreds of people No one will care."

"If you say so," the weasel said, now ready to go. "They might be curious though if he doesn't heal as quickly as you say." Smiling weasel said, "Prometheus in chains."

"Who the fuck is Prometheus?"

"A god chained to a mountain for all eternity," the weasel explained while admiring the captive with a feral eye. "I do hope Medtech acquires him. How long do you think he will live?"

"How the fuck do I know. Let's go before someone finds us."

For the first time in his life Khan felt desperately helpless. He strained against the bonds but they were positioned against his strongest points. He couldn't get leverage. Blind cold hate ate at his brain, and if he could have killed himself, he would have.

In the morning when the shift change occurred, the night guards who had be in on this nightmare left without checking on him, leaving the day shift to wonder why his chin and neck were so bloody. No one thought to ask him as they went about their daily routine. And he quite simply closed his eyes and closed the world out of his mind.

Dr. McCoy was notified that Khan was refusing to take nourishment, and while that didn't concern him, the report that he had been found with a bloody chin and neck puzzled him. Why would Khan hurt his mouth that much? Since McCoy needed to collect platelets, he attended to the prisoner early.

Taking a chance, McCoy removed the metal gag. "They tell me you aren't hungry." Khan said nothing. Doc was reluctant to get too close to his mouth; the last man he had bitten was still recovering from the bite. "What's wrong with you?"

Khan opened his eyes and sighed heavily. "When is Cdr, McGiver supposed to arrive?"

"Some time after 1300," McCoy answered and took the blood.

"May I keep that out of my mouth if I promise to behave?" Khan asked. It was a weary request born of what was turning into quiet desperation. "Dr. McCoy, do you see anything on my abdomen?"

McCoy looked at Khan's belly, even running his hand over it. "I don't see anything. Why?"

Khan closed his eyes and didn't answer. Finally he said, "There are more insidious monsters than me." McCoy didn't understand and retreated with the precious blood to the lab to prepare it for Jim Kirk.

Marla McGiver arrived a little after 1300 and found Khan seated and in clothes. "How are you?" she greeted and occupied the other chair.

"I was visited last night by two men, one from Medtech," Khan readily told her. "The man from Medtech took samples and spoke of purchasing me."

Marla mouth dropped open in surprise. "Are you sure?" she asked and opened her briefcase to get out her recorder. "Starfleet doesn't sell people as I understand it."

"Are you being deliberately abstruse, or is this your way of calling me a liar?"

Marla retreated from her comment. "Khan, tell me what happened."

"Two men, one of them a night guard visited me last night. The other man was a technician for Medtech, They took blood and opened me up…"

Marla raised her had to stop him. "They opened you up?"

"With a laser knife. There was a list of organs they wanted pieces of."

"And you were awake?"

"I can not be sedated. They had to beat me senseless to capture me."

"Oh Khan, I am so sorry. I'll see about getting you moved."

His eyes softened, and he said, "Thank-you." Marla could not help but blush.

"Right now I need to resume where we left off yesterday. If that is all right with you."

"Certainly."

At the end of the interview, Marla hurried to sickbay and cornered Dr, McCoy in his lab. "Khan was visited by two men last night who took tissue samples and spoke of buying him."

"Hogwash," McCoy retorted. "Khan is being kept under top secret security. He's feeding you a fanciful story."

"Have you given any thought to what will happen to him if word gets out his blood can raise the dead?"

McCoy didn't care. It was because of Khan that Jim was near dead in the first place. "We'll just have to keep a better eye on him then." Turning to her, he added, "Maybe one of your people saw a way to make a little extra cash."

Marla didn't flinch. "How many people now know you are using Khan to bring Capt. Kirk back from death? How many desperate people are going to want the same opportunity?"

"Not my problem," McCoy retorted. "That man in there is the only person I care about right now." He nodded at the quarantine room where James T. Kirk existed in a semi vegetative state. Everyday he was getting just a little bit better as Khan's blood worked its magic, but any attempt to stop the treatment would mean the end of the man Bones McCoy regarded as his closest friend.

Marla understood this and sympathized with him. But her first duty was to the man she was ordered to defend as best as she could. This meant notifying her senior members of the night visitors.

It didn't go the way she imagined. Cdr. Naz was not interested in finding some place new for Khan to stay. If she didn't trust his guards then she could sit up and baby-sit him.

Khan was not expecting them to return so soon, but the moment he heard the doors open and close he went on mental and physical alert. His surprise was genuine when Cdr. McGiver appeared with several books in her hand. "I'm your extra security," she said and pulled a chair up to the gurney. Looking at the backs of her books, she said, "I can read these to myself or to you. Grunt once if you would like me to read to you." When he responded, she said, "Very good. Let's see, I like this one. It's old but that's not a bad thing really." Opening the book, she read, " The first place I can well remember was a large, pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it." Khan closed his eyes and disappeared into that sunlit meadow. Whenever McGiver stopped reading he would open them and look at her. She read until sleep wrapped her in its warm cloak. Then using an extra blanket, she made a pallet on the floor and went to sleep. Khan watched her sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Marla was tired. For three nights in a row she gave up most of her sleep keeping an eye on him, which really seemed odd to her. Here was the most dangerous man alive, damn near immortal and someone had to protect him from organ harvesters.

She folded her arms on the desk and slowly lowered her head to them. Just a real short nap, that was all she needed. No visit today; she'd continue the interview tonight. The sound of her office door sliding open and someone clearing their throat brought her out of short nap, only it hadn't been short. She had been asleep two hours. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she looked up at Cdr. Spock.

"Do we have an appointment?" she asked apologetically and adjusted her uniform to look less crumpled.

"No," Spock replied evenly, "but I was hoping I might have a word with you."

"Yes, certainly, how can I help you?"

"Why are you spending the night with Khan?"

That sounded insulting to her ear, and it would have been coming from any other man, but this was Cdr. Spock and Vulcans were not so abstruse. "He believes those men will return, and I want to be there when they do."

"And what will you do if they do?"

"I haven't given it that much thought," Marla confessed.

"Commander, I have looked at the security files and no one was seen entering his cell block. He has lied to you."

Marla stared at the Vulcan in disbelief. Of course Mr. Spock would not lie, Vulcans were notoriously truthful. But why would Khan lie to her? To get another cell? "Are you denying me access to him?" she asked, unsure of who to be angry with.

"Of course not," Spock answered in that same even toned voice. "I am merely informing you that we have found no signs of an assault on him. We examined the security footage and interviewed the men on duty. No one saw or heard anything."

He inserted the chip into her monitor and showed the external corridor. No one or anything entered the cell block that entire night. Khan had lied to her.

Marla hated being played for a fool and it showed in her face. Khan had promised not to hurt her, but he had not promised to be honest with her. "Thank you, Mr. Spock. I will take care of this. Right now."

Driving to the holding cells at the base hospital, she flashed her badge at the head security petty officer on duty and walked on in. Khan was secured and bitted, and being a good judge of body language, he probably guessed she had discovered his little ruse. Standing over him, momentarily fixated on his eyes, she gathered her wits and said, "You lied to me. Mr. Spock came to my office with proof that no one assaulted you." Khan closed his eyes, his face unreadable. "I won't be coming back tonight," she continued. "We'll resume our interview tomorrow." Since he could not dispute her accusation, she left his cell immediately. On her way down the external passage she noticed a small partially hidden alcove. Looking inside she noticed several small monitors overhead with controls. On one of the monitors she could see Khan just lying there with his eyes still shut. Gazing down at the control panel there were switches and buttons for all kinds of stuff, including an emergency release.

Deciding it wouldn't be wise to be seen there, she went on her way. That evening in her apartment she couldn't get rid of the restless feeling that had settled over her. She had become used to a routine in only three days and now missed it. Sitting down to read a digital plate, she found a book she liked and started reading it. Black Beauty popped into her head and she remembered she hadn't finished it. It was bad luck to put a book down and not finish reading it.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! She did not need to go back to the cellblock, but she clearly wanted to. So what would her excuse be, she wanted to get her book? Did she even owe that lying son of a bitch an explanation? She needed to reestablish their boundaries.

Well this wasn't going to end well if she didn't go to the cellblock and retrieve her book and let him know how disappointed she was in him. Oh yeah, that would scare him. Sitting in an overstuffed chair with her legs under her, she tried watching some entertainment on the main monitor, but she kept thinking back on that man. She couldn't even bring herself to think his name to herself.

Oh hell! Khan! The son of a bitch was named Khan, and he had lied to her, and now she felt like an idiot. Maybe this was as good a time as any to give him a solid piece of her mind, Getting up, she got dressed in something casual and headed out the door.

She arrived at the cellblock and flashed her badge at the gate guard. He looked at it a moment and then waved her in. Parking the car in the virtually empty lot, only a few cars and vans present, she entered the building and followed the dimly lit passage to the lifts and up to the third deck.

Playing over what she was going to say in her head, she glanced at the alcove and saw something that puzzled her. Back tracking she stared at the monitor first in stunned silence and then in anger. Khan hadn't been lying, and he was in greater danger now. There were men in the cell with him, and they had him at their mercy.

What she did next was the most dangerous thing she could have done, she hit the emergency release button, freeing Khan and unleashing a monster on those men. It took him only a split second to realize that he was free. Marla watched him rise up like an avenging angel. Marla had to stop him. Sprinting down the passage, she slammed her hand against the bar that opened the doors and entered a scene of pure horror. "Khan! Please don't kill them! Please!" He ignored her as he violently punished the guards who were all in on it. The civilian with the briefcase huddled in sheer terror beside the gurney and bolted for the open door. Khan snatched him by the back of the shirt and threw him against the wall.

Marla moved towards Khan and shouted, "Khan, don't kill them! Please!" One of the panic stricken guards, spun around and fired at her. The pain was exquisite, throwing her against the wall. Black confusion ate her thoughts and sent her tumbling down a stairway of unconsciousness. Her last coherent thought was, he wasn't lying.

Marla woke to Dr. McCoy's face peering closely at hers. "How do you feel?" he asked curiously.

"My shoulder hurts," she answered with a loud gasp.

"Another inch to the side and you would be dead," McCoy admonished her. "What were you thinking?"

Marla thought about Khan and it crushed her. "How many people did it take to kill him?" she asked brokenly.

"Kill who?"

"Khan. What did you do with his body?"

McCoy looked confused. "Khan's not dead…sorry to say. "

Marla sat up. "He's still in lock up?"

"Yes. He was the one who notified us that something had happened. He could have escaped but didn't."

"He didn't?"

"No, when security arrived he was sitting on the gurney with you unconscious in his lap. The Medtech agent was writhing on the floor with two broken legs. Unfortunately Khan killed the other men." As enraged as he had been, she was surprised that he had spared the technician. "Commander," Bones interrupted her thoughts, " I don't know what he's up to, but there is a reason why he didn't leave and it involves you. And it's not good."

"Maybe he's just tired of running," she opined, "or maybe he knows he can't get away."

"Or maybe he has a long term plan and needs you to pull it off. Commander, he can't be trusted. Mark my words, he is dangerous." He didn't like the thought that jumped into his head. "Marla, he didn't leave because he has something special in mind. Please be careful."

"I remember everyone thought he was lying to me," she protested and lay back down. It hurt too much to move. "Does he know I'm going to be all right?"

"I expect he may have had something to do with that." Of course the moment he said it, he regretted it. She would want to know how, and he would be required, maybe not, to tell her how Khan had used his own blood to bathe her wound, which had sped up her healing. No, there was no way in hell he was going to tell her that. "He called, remember?"

"I'll have to thank him."

"When you feel better," McCoy said. He didn't tell her that Mr. Spock wanted to speak to her about how Khan got free. Most people just assumed Khan freed himself. Mr. Spock wasn't so sure.


	5. Chapter 5

Dr. McCoy wanted to keep Cdr. McGiver in sickbay under observation, but he was reluctant to tell her why. When she woke up in the morning of the fourth day she was completely healed, not only of her near lethal shoulder wound but of several smaller maladies as well.

When the doctor met with Mr. Spock later that afternoon he got right to the point. "I can not keep her any longer. If you're going to ask her about how Khan free, you'd better hurry up and do it."

"I know she set him free," Mr. Spock replied confidently, "but there is a problem."

"What's that?"

"The admiralty does not want to pursue it."

"What? Why?" Bones asked incredulously.

"Because that would create too many questions for Starfleet that they do not want to answer," he replied, clearly annoyed with himself. "She had warned us about Khan and we ignored it."

"I thought you checked it out," Bones countered. Granted he did not care for Khan, but he would not have intentionally done of the son of a bitch any harm.

"I did but not in detail," Spock explained. "The visual had been altered, and I had not examined it more carefully."

"Why?"

"Because I did not want to."

Bones made an "oh" expression with his mouth and then asked, "So what are you going to do?"

Spock rose from his desk and said, "See her. Coming, doctor?"

Marla was sitting at her bedside restless and anxious to be away when Cdrs. Spock and McCoy arrived. So this was it, the big question, the one she didn't want to answer. Standing up, her pulse racing, she asked, "You have questions for me?"

"No," Mr. Spock responded indifferently. "I know you released him, but Starfleet is going to let it go considering the situation." Marla said nothing to betray herself. Spock had hoped for an admission but none. "Do you even realize just how dangerous he is?"

"He murdered hundreds of people in one day," Bones stated passionately. "He has no qualms what so ever about murdering people."

"Thank-you, Dr. McCoy," Spock replied and wished him be silent.

"May I continue to see my client?" she asked with as much passion in her voice as Spock.

"What about the men on his defense team?" Bones persisted. "Why can't they see him? Why you?"

"Because they are afraid of him," Marla admitted and surprised herself. It was true, they were afraid of Khan. The one great predator terrified them, and if anyone was going to be devoured, they wanted it to be her. Keeping her tone as passionless as the Vulcan's she turned to Bones and asked, "When may I leave?"

"I've signed your discharge papers this morning."

Marla shook her head, grabbed her things, left what she didn't need, and fled. She told herself she needed to get her car, which was still at the brig and hailed a cab. Was she going to see him while there? Did she want to see him? Of course he needed to know that she was sorry she accused him of lying. Just a short visit. That was all she needed.

She checked on her car first, starting it up and giving herself time to gather her wits about her. If she entered the cell shaking with fear, he would know it; if she pretended not to be afraid, he would know it. She had to be Not Afraid. She had to distant herself from fear. He was not going to hurt her. Once she had that under control, she climbed out of the car and entered the building.

Marla checked in with security. They called the cellblock to notify the guards on duty that she was coming up. It was extra procedure, but Starfleet didn't want another attack on their very valuable prisoner. Marla pondered what she was going to say to him, and decided a simply apology without explanation was best.

…..Marla stared up into eyes of anger, his right hand clutching her chin while his left held her wrist. He had jerked her off her feet, and she was now fully supported by his body. "I…don't…lie," he growled softly into her ear. Marla struggled to get her feet firmly under her, but he kept her off balance against him.

"Khan," she panted in fear. "I saved your life. I was the one that freed you!" she insisted desperately.

He permitted her footage and said, "I know, as I saved your life. On that account we are even."

"Yes, I know, you called for help," she answered and prayed he released her face and wrist soon. He wasn't hurting her, but his grip was firm, and she could not get away.

Puzzlement replaced the anger in his eyes. He released her face but not her wrist. "Is that what they told you?"

Still too close to him, she answered, "Yes."

"I did more than that," he spoke as to a foolish child. Without second thought he raised the military shirt they permitted him and laid her bare hand on his chest. Marla gasped. He was too hot in her mind, too male. "The shot ripped open your shoulder and nicked the superior thoracic artery. There were also some small impact fractures of the clavicle," he explained. She tried to move her hand, but he pressed it tighter to his body. "You were bleeding to death." She stopped struggling and started to really listen to him. "I picked you up and held you. Using what I had, I sliced myself open and poured blood into your wound to save you."

Marla hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath. Letting her eyes move to her hand, she stared at his chest and imagined him slicing it open to save her. His blood was in her body. She moved her hand lower on his chest, an overtly sexual response.

He was studied her harder now with the eyes of both the consummate predator and a man. He released her hand, but it stayed on his chest, touching him in a way that was horribly intimate. He sought the touch, the physical contact, but he could not let himself get drawn into something they could not complete. He caught her wrist again and this time gently removed it from his chest.

"Not now," he said and lowered the shirt. "Return tonight and perhaps there will be opportunity." Then taking her face between his hands, he bent down and kissed her. It was long and slow and lingering. He kissed her until her body surrendered completely to him. He could have her now, anytime he wanted. Releasing her, his own body protesting the denial, he turned away and sat on the gurney. "Get your composure about you, then go," he said.

Marla had just gotten there and didn't want to leave. Standing between his legs, her hands taking possession of his thighs, she gazed into his eyes and said, " I don't want to leave."

Khan smiled. Removing her hands, his kissed each one and then released them. "You need to go. There will be time for that later."

Marla frowned but relented. Once she was out of the cell, he laid back on the gurney and willed himself to calm down. When the guards came in to check on him, their weapons still set on 'kill' they frisked him for contraband. Because he had not fled earlier, they allowed him more freedom, but break any rule at all, and it would be bit and straps again.

When she returned later that night, she was dressed in her official uniform on official business. A hidden smirk might have cast doubt on her real intentions, but no one said or did anything to impeded her movement. She headed up to the cellblock with her briefcase in hand.

Khan could tell she had spend the afternoon and evening thinking about him. He could literally smell her arousal. He smiled.

"Come here," he said and held his hand out. Marla dropped her briefcase and threw herself into his arms. Once more he took possession of her mouth and lips and tongue, Drowing her in a pool of blind lust. She bit at his mouth and shoulder, dug her nails into his back and tried to drag a cry of desire from him. But she was the deer held by his sharp teeth, the feast that fed him. She died to be reborn in his hands over and over again. Khan owned her. His blood….and other things….filled her body and changed the shape of her soul. He did not release her until three hundred years of denial was sated. For one brief unguarded moment, she saw the face of a man who was simply a man. But it didn't last long. The sharpness of eye returned along with the terrible control that made him so formidable.

"Fix your clothes," he said and took care of himself. "You need to tell me how my defense is coming and when will the trial begin?"


	6. Chapter 6

My apologies for the short chapter. When you read it you will understand why

...

t had taken Marla several weeks to get the recorded log of Admiral Marcus from his time at Section 31. The man logging the records out to her couldn't promise what kind of order they were in, but as far as he knew they were all there.

Taking them home she checked the dates on all the chips until she found the earliest one. Slipping it into the computer, she settled back on her sofa to watch the events that transpired before Khan broke free. Almost immediately she realized it recorded the awakening of Khan on the Botany Bay.

She watched Marcus' salvage team search each cryogenic container until they found the one they were looking for. There were no precautions beyond weapons set to kill…just in case…nor was anyone concerned with how they revived him. If Kahn wasn't strong enough to survive reanimation on his own, then he wasn't strong enough to live. Marla was deeply troubled as she watched them force Khan to move when he was too weak to stand. And even in that weakened state he was formidable. She would need to find the men who awakened him, if any of them were still alive. Maybe it was just an odd thought, but she was pretty sure that if Khan had run across them while free, they weren't alive anymore.

The visuals were going to be extremely useful in Khan's defense. Marla was pretty sure the senior members on the team were just looking for the notoriety, the defenders of the monster Khan, seeing it as a victory if they could just get him put back to sleep and not killed. Marla knew there was no way in hell that Kahn was going to go free, but she resented their unwillingness to provide explanation for why Kahn attacked Starfleet after the amount of time he had spent in London and at the orbiting dock in fixed orbit around Jupiter.

Doing a quick watch tonight to see what was on all of them, she stopped at the beginning of one chip in stunned silence when a face appeared on the monitor that she had not anticipated. Dr. Carol Marcus had said that her father had given her access to his project at Section 31. What had not been mentioned was her working connection with Khan. Mesmerized she turned the visual log back and watched, but the moment raw jealousy flared in her breast she turned it off in horror.

Khan watched Marla with an amused expression on his face. He had not anticipated this jealousy and found it so human. "So the answer to my question is yes, you fucked Carol Marcus."

"Yes." He was Khan; he could 'fuck' whomever he wanted, but Dr. Marcus was particularly sweet and more so after her father found out. "I thought Admiral Marcus was going to have a stroke. Unfortunately I did not anticipate just how angry that made him. And when someone he had set to spy on me informed him about my torpedoes, I had no choice but to run. He intended to kill me on sight."

"So the admiral was going to kill you for fucking his daughter?"

Kahn could not hide his amusement now. She really was jealous. "That was one of his reasons."

"I'm going to go speak with Dr. Marcus about this," Marla decided aloud.

"You're not going to ask her if she fucked me are you?" he asked curiously.

"You are enjoying this too much," Marla remarked and fought down this ugly anger. "I need to know what she knew about her father's interactions with you. Insight."

"Is that all?"

"Yes. I also saw how they awakened you. Anyone else it would have killed."

"It almost did," Khan remarked in a rather matter of fact way although his body still remembered the searing pain of being forced awake from cryo-sleep, and the ungodly weakness that made moving so difficult.

Marcus had made his intentions very clear. Help with the project or lose his people. Khan relented to save them, but he had hated every second he was under Marcus' thumb. When his educated daughter joined the project, he saw a way to get back at the admiral. What is it about playing indifferent that makes a woman want him more?

"Yes, go see Carol," he decided. "And give her my love." Seeing the blaze in Marla's eyes, he held his hand out to her and said, "Ours is different." In so much as one woman helped him in Section 31 and the other was keeping him alive. When Marla's hands became a little too possessive, he eased her back and said, "Not now."


	7. Chapter 7

Getting an appointment with Dr. Carol Marcus proved interesting. First she was too busy, then she was out of town for an emergency, then it was she just didn't want to see Marla. It took a judge's order to get her to relent and meet with Marla in her office. Not surprising she had a lawyer with her.

"Let me begin," Marla began without looking at the woman or lawyer, her eyes on her notes, "my questions will come from the visuals I have obtained from Sector 31." She lifted her eyes to the other woman's face. Carol Marcus looked horrified. Gottcha! "Do you still want your lawyer present?" Marla asked her curiously.

"Yes," the man answered.

"No," Carol countered passionately and then calmed down. Turning to her lawyer she said, "I think maybe Cdr. McGivers and I might better speak in private."

"Carol, I don't think that's a good idea," the man protested.

"Please, I will call you," Carol assured him. The lawyer hesitated and looked from Marla to Carol before leaving the office. Waiting until she was certain they were alone, Carol turned to Marla and hissed, "What are you up to?"

"Working to keep them from killing Khan," Marla answered tonelessly. "Trying to present enough extenuating circumstances to raise a little doubt."

"Doubt?" Dr. Marcus retorted in disbelief. "There's no doubt he caused the deaths of hundreds."

"One can argue this was a rather late thought," Marla countered and turned on the loaded visual. "One might even argue you and your father manipulated him with threats, and what would that be from you….promises?" Carol stared in stunned silence at the visual of her working beside Khan, all smiles and chatty. "He told me you got even closer," Marla added.

Marcus flashed angry eyes at her. "I didn't know who he was." At the time asll she was aware of was a handsome man working for her father on a project she was most interested in. No one but no knew not even Khan that it was she who had turned him in to her father and forced him to run.

"But you found out quick enough. It's in the reports that you were told who he was and to be careful around him."

"True," she admitted, "but I did not know the full story."

The interview, if you could call it that, went on over an hour. Carol told her side of the story in candid detail, but there was always the anger in her words over what Khan had done to her father. "I wish we had killed his crew," she hissed off the cuff, not really paying attention to what she had said.

Marla turned her head towards the woman and asked, "What did you say?"

Carol realized that what she had just said was not common knowledge, but once the cat was out of the bag, she had to admit it. "We didn't kill Khan's crew, although we did not try to dissuade him otherwise."

Marla did not know what to think. Finally she said, " Everything that he's done has been in response to a perceived threat to his people or himself. From the moment he was awakened he's been used."

Carol would have none of it. "He murdered innocent people."

"A top secret research lab that he was forced to work by your father, and only after he believed your father attacked him."

"Even if he thought he was justified, what he did to the Enterprise was not," Carol snapped back.

Marla saw this was going nowhere and stopped. Giving Marcus a chance to calm down she asked. "Dr. Marcus, where are his people?"

Carol's eyes flashed defiantly. "I don't know."

Marla didn't believe her, but decided to let it rest for now. She needed to tell Khan that his people were alive. "Dr. Marcus, thank-you for speaking to me."

"Does he know?"

"Yes. He was the one who told me you had been lovers." Another brutal jab at Marcus, who clearly regretted the affair. It thrilled Marla to see the woman so upset. Ugly but satisfying.

Marcus met her bemused gaze and said, "You are a fool if you think you have some inside track with him. You and I are nothing but puppets to be manipulated by him. Mark my words, commander. He cares nothing for you."

"Thank-you, doctor. I will heed your warning," Marla replied and readied to leave as soon as Marcus was out of her office. Locking everything up, she hurried down to the parking lot. It took her an hour in late afternoon traffic to reach the cell block, and when she got there Khan was gone. Finding someone, anyone in the block, she wanted to know where he was.

"That MO from the Enterprise came and got him," someone finally told her.

Marla feared Kirk had taken a turn for the worse. "Why?"

"Someone tried to cut his heart out," the man answered without too much concern. Almost wistfully he added, "I wonder how much they got paid to turn him over."

"Who?" Marla asked in horror.

"Everyone has a price," the petty officer replied. "Excuse me, I need to be somewhere else."

Marla could not wrap her mind about what had happened to Khan as she returned outside to her car. Refusing to give into her rising panic, she headed to the hospital where McCoy had set up shop. Rushing up to his office, she found the doctor working on some notes. "What has happened to Khan?" she asked quickly.

McCoy set his autoplate down and stood up. "He was attacked last night," he said uncomfortably. "Come."

Khan was locked in a private room, and while Marla could see him through the door window, he never moved when it was opened. "What happened to him?" she asked fearfully.

"A lot of people know about him now," McCoy answered evasively. He didn't want to contemplate his role in this mishap.

"What happened to him?" she demanded.

McCoy frowned and answered, "Someone stuck a long needle in his chest and took out cardiac tissue. From the amount of bruising they took quite a few organ specimens."

"He would not have allowed it," Marla protested. "How did they get him down?"

"I'm guessing they shocked him with just enough stun to knock him out. Someone paid a lot of money to get to him. They wanted him down but not dead."

"Why isn't he moving?"

"That I don't know," McCoy admitted. "He should be over the stunning by now, and I've checked his heart. They took a couple of chunks out of it, but he seems to be healing quickly." Dr. McCoy was actually convinced that they had tried to take a sizable chunk of his heart, which he was certain was not for research. Someone extremely wealthy and desperate had paid off a lot of people to get his hands on Khan's body. Starfleet either wouldn't or couldn't protect him.

"May I visit with him in private?" Marla asked hopefully. "You can lock the door if you wish."

McCoy thought that a bad idea. "He might wake up in a bad mood," he cautioned her. Khan had been stunned senseless in the attack and would probably have one hell of a headache when he awakened.

"I'm not worried. Please."

"All right. Fifteen minutes is all I'm giving you."

"Thank you." Marla waited for McCoy to close the door behind him before pulling a chair up to Khan's bedside. She wanted to tell him about his people but feared his injury more. Easing the edge of the dressing up, she frowned at the amount of trauma just under his zyphoid process, that triangular piece of bone just under the sternum. "What did they do to you?" she whispered to herself. Pulling the sheet back she was horrified by the amount of bruising in strategic locations. This was as close to harvesting as you could get without killing the host.

"Khan," she began carefully, unsure if he could hear her or not, "I found out from Dr. Marcus that your people are still alive." He didn't move or act as if he had heard her. "I'll be back tomorrow," she continued and stood up. "You will be safer here. I promise."

Marla McGivers knocked on the door and waited to be let out. The light in the room faded and Khan slowly opened his eyes. He was in pain and didn't want to move. The men who had attacked him were not going to get away with this; he would see to that. And Marla had discovered his people were alive. Alive! Even though it hurt to breathe, more damage done internally than Dr. McCoy realized, Khan smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

Khan sat up and ran his hand across his chest. The skin was smooth and flawless, no sign of the brutal attack on him. Standing up he stretched like some great cat with his hands clasped, his arms high over his head. Hearing the latch turn on the door, he turned; Dr. McCoy wanted to check on him. Armed men with weapons set to kill stood behind him.

"How are you feeling?" Bones asked and ran the receiving end of a portable scanner over Khan's chest.

"Alive," Khan answered tonelessly.

Bones not certain how safe he was, quipped, "Good thing they weren't trying to kill you."

"You think they weren't trying?" Khan asked and moved away from the doctor, keeping his back to the man. What those men had done to him had taken him closer to death than any other event in his life. And to be conscious while they…while they tried to rip his heart out.

"Well, you're safe here," Bones assured him.

"Am I?" Khan asked and turned back to him. "What is your price?"

"If I had one, you would already be dead," Bones shot back.

"Maybe after Kirk is fully healed? Maybe then?" Khan dared, trusting no one. It really didn't matter, though. He was not going to stay here much longer.

"Soon enough," McCoy stated dryly. Hearing a woman's voice, he looked around as Cdr. McGivers entered the room.

"Are you all right?" she asked Khan.

"I'm still alive," he answered and turned to face her. "Are you finished, Dr. McCoy?"

"Yes."

"Then a word with the commander if I may." All so polite like a cobra before it strikes.

McCoy could not deny him his counsel, but he also feared leaving McGiver alone with him. "We'll be watching," he said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Khan let his eyes sweep the room, and in short order he spotted the two cameras. "Marla, come here," he said and turned so his back was to one of the cameras. She hesitated a second and then neared him. Not close enough, he caught her by the back of the head and drew her even closer. "Find my people," he whispered into her ear, his mouth hidden by her hair. 'And when you do, awaken the man in tube three."

Marla looked up in shock and surprise. "I can't," she replied tersely.

"Why not yell it," Khan retorted irritably.

Marla moved back closer and said, "I don't know how."

"Three, nine, seven, three," he answered. "That is all you need to know. Go now and do what I ask. Keep him with you." Khan righted himself and looked up at one of the monitors. Marla hesitated but he shot her a look that said he would book no nonsense from her.

Marla hurried out of the cell and ran straight into Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock. "Not staying long?" Mr. Spock asked curiously.

"Not staying long," Marla answered and hurried away.

Spock waited a moment and then entered Khan's cell. "What is she doing for you?" he asked curiously.

"Finding the names of the men who attacked me, "Khan lied. He would have her look into that later.

"If you know who they are, you should tell Starfleet," Spock said.

Khan smiled and said, "I decline."

"As you wish," Spock said and turned away. "Where you are, you will exact no revenge."

"Perhaps," Khan said and stretched out on the bunk.

It took Marla several days to locate Khan's people in a military storage unit not far from the hospital and another day to figure out how to get inside without drawing attention to herself. The easiest solution was to get in during the day and just not leave. After midnight when all was still and quiet, she searched for the number three pod. The face of the man inside was only slightly younger than Khan's. Remembering the numbers that Khan had told her, she programmed them into the unit. The process of awakening the man began, and before morning Joachim sat up and took his first deep breath. Khan's second in command was awake.

He looked at her uncertain eyes and asked, "Wie bist du?"

"I don't speak any Old Earth languages," she replied.

He waited a moment and then said, "They were just experimenting with a common language when I went to sleep." Looking around, he asked, "Where's Khan?"

"In the hospital. He told me to wake you and then keep you safe."

Joachim bobbed his head and then said, "Very well. What do we need to do?"

First she needed to seal the pod so no one would think to look into it. Then she needed to get him into some clothes. There was something discerning about a physically perfect man standing nude in front of her.

Taking him home, she had expected questions, but instead he stared out the window of the car and took everything in. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

He thought about it and then said, "Yes."

"We'll pick something up on our way."

"When can I see Khan?"

"I don't know."

Joachim looked back out the window. "I need to see Khan."

Marla didn't know how she was going to accomplish that, but then she had never imagined waking one of his people up either.


	9. Chapter 9

Marla was tired and wanted to go to bed when she arrived at her apartment with Joachim. "I need to get some sleep," she told the man. "Are you tired?"

"No," he answered thoughtfully while looking her apartment over. Small, neat, pictures and flowers. No signs of a masculine entity. Khan had not been here.

"Of course not," she remarked wearily. Showing him her computer terminal, she said, "It's pretty simple to operate. There are news stories on Khan. Might as well read about his activities since Admiral Marcus awakened him." Joachim sat down clicked on one article. "I'm going to bed now. Don't answer anything or let anyone know you're here. Khan is in a lot of trouble, and I'm trying to keep him alive."

Joachim looked up at her and frowned. "When will I be able to see him?"

"I'll work on it after I wake up. Good night."

Joachim mumbled good night and went to work catching up on Khan's activities. For a brief moment he considered joining the woman, she was attractive, but quickly nixed the idea. He was certain Marla McGiver belonged to Khan, and Khan did not share his women.

Marla did not know how long she had slept, but when she finally got up she found Joachim still at the computer. "Where is Khan now?" he asked impatiently.

"The hospital lock up," she answered and went into the kitchen to make coffee. "Are you hungry? Do you want any coffee?"

"Yes," he answered and pulled up an aerial map of the hospital. "What floor is he on?"

Marla glanced over his shoulder and said, "I do not think Khan wants you to break him out….if that's what you have planned."

Joachim smiled and glanced up at her, and for the first time Marla noticed that although Khan and Joachim were dissimilar in many ways, they shared the same brilliant eyes. "Are you and Khan kinsmen?"

"He is my older brother," Joachim answered and glanced down at the computer. "We share a mother."

Marla was stunned into silence. Finally she said, "You are Khan's brother?"

"Half brother, but he is the only kinsman I have ever really known."

Marla wanted to ask how, and why, but the words just wouldn't come out. Returning to the kitchen, she made breakfast for Joachim and herself. Then it was a shower and crisp clean uniform. "It's been almost a week since I've seen him," she said as she gathered her things into her briefcase. "I imagine he's wondering where I am."

Joachim threw a concerned look her way. "Khan does not like being kept in the dark. If you are supposed to report to him, a week is a long time to wait."

Marla frowned at Joachim and said, "I don't work for your brother. My job is to make sure Star Fleet doesn't kill him." Joachim gave her a look that said "we'll see". Marla didn't like that. Pausing, she asked, "Is there anything you want me to tell him?"

"Ask him when," Joachim answered. "I need to find a safe place for us to go, as I am certain you will be the first person they question."

Marla frowned. "Joachim, you can't break him out. It's Star Fleet, they'll catch you."

"Us," he corrected her. "You will be with us."

"I don't want to go with you," Marla replied uncomfortably.

"If you belong to him he won't leave you behind," Joachim stated tonelessly, his eyes on the floor plans of the hospital. "Can you get me a Star Fleet uniform?"

"Where would I get a Star Fleet uniform?" she shot back at him.

"Don't you have a uniform shop?" he asked patiently and glanced at her. He was beginning to look upon her as a liability with her constant second-guessing him, but Khan would not have taken her in if he hadn't thought he could control her.

Marla knew it was too late to say no now. "What size do you wear?"

"Forty-two. And could I borrow some money? There are things I need to get."

Marla considered just giving him her pay plate, but if someone asked for an ID he wouldn't have one, and they would both be in trouble. "I've got a few dollars," she said and dug into her black leather purse for the money. "How much do you think you'll actually need?"

"Several thousand."

"Several thousand?" she asked in amazement. "May I ask why?"

"We will need a new place to stay, plus access to weapons and eventually we'll need to commandeer a ship," he answered confidently.

Marla knew the next thing out of her mouth was going to damn her soul to Khan's but she couldn't help it. "I will be back this afternoon with all the money I can scrounge up."

"Excellent. Now go. If you have not seen him in a week, he will be wondering where you are."

Marla didn't like taking orders from Joachim, especially since it was her idea to go see Khan. Arriving at the hospital, hoping that he was still there, she went up to the ward to find Carol Marcus present visiting with Dr, McCoy who was pleased to announce that Jim would be up and around in another day or two.

Marla expressed her pleasure with those results and asked if she could see Khan. Dr. McCoy nodded at one of the armed guards who unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Khan turned sharply towards the open door and frowned when Marla walked in after a week of nothing. And for a moment he noticed Dr. Carol Marcus just beyond Marla with Dr. McCoy. The expression on her face was contemptuous at best, and deadly at worst.

"Where have you been?" he asked Marla while the door was open.

"I've a visitor," she answered as the guard closed the door.

"A visitor?" Khan asked hopefully, his own demeanor improving considerably. Had she awakened Joachim?

"Yes," Marla said and set her briefcase on the cot and opened it. She lifted her eyes and prayed Khan picked up on subtle body language. "He's very devoted to his older brother."

Khan smiled.

Carol Marcus smiled at Dr. McCoy and said, "Tell Jim I'll be around later."

"I'll do that," Bones assured her.

"Good. I need to get back to work."

"Don't be a stranger."

"I won't," she said waved her hand. Once her back was to the physician, the smiled melted away to one of pure hate. She hated Khan more than anything and was adamantly opposed to returning him to deep freeze. A part of her liked the idea of handing him over to the pharmaceuticals or to a private individual for harvesting. He needed to die.

Returning to her lab, she got on the computer and looked up biotoxins. If Star Fleet didn't have the gall to put him down, then she would. She would create a cocktail of such poisons that even he wouldn't be able to survive it.


	10. Chapter 10

Marla's heart was racing madly in her breast as she and Joachim entered the hospital. He was dressed like a Fleet Officer in the legal department. Utterly charming he smiled at everyone and said hello. Not a few women took a second look at the devastating blond who happily flirted with them.

"So much for low profile," Marla remarked on the elevator.

"People will remember me whether I smile or frown," Joachim answered. "This way I do not arouse suspicions today." It also allowed him to get a feel for the ward and locate all the security cameras. Joachim had a photographic memory and never forgot anything that he ever saw. Even the schedule on the wall, a haphazard chart that told him when the ward was most fully manned did not escape his eyes.

Marla, quite naturally, expected Dr. McCoy to intercept them. "Who's this?" he asked curiously.

"Lt. Holtz," Joachim answered with a friendly smile and extended his hand to the doctor. "I'm helping Marla with some testimony today. We are looking into the attacks on Khan."

"Really? I thought Star Fleet was investigating that."

"It is," Joachim assured him. "I just want to get all the gory details."

Marla glanced up at Joachim and prayed he would stop talking. When it seemed he had, she smiled at McCoy and asked, "How is Capt. Kirk."

"Up and moving around."

"I was wondering if I could make an appointment to speak with him."

"I'll mention it to him," McCoy promised her. "I take it you want me to let you in there?"

"If it won't inconvenience you," she replied.

"I think you are too close to him," McCoy remarked and unlocked the door.

"I am trying to distance myself," Marla assured him. "Coming Mr. Holtz?"

"Behind you, commander." Joachim followed Marla into the locked room and softened his expression when he finally came face to face with his brother. Khan had not been expecting him, and the expression on his face had for a moment betrayed his vulnerability. "I am Lt. Holtz," he introduced himself. "I want to know about the attacks on you. We are trying to find these people and learn how they found out about you."

Marla had nothing to do with this and took the chair beside the cot. But for the first time she really learned how Khan had been hurt by the attacks on him. And the justification that he had no rights because of what he had done. Of course Khan saw this as a continuation of the process begun by Admiral Marcus. From the moment he was awakened he had been mistreated. Everything he had done had been in retaliation for that abuse.

Of course Khan believed it, and without a doubt Joachim believed Khan, but Marla found herself believing it as well. What did it matter now? Wasn't she about to help Joachim break Khan out of captivity? How did she fall that far down the rabbit hole?

After a couple of hours Mr. Spock appeared to check on them. The Vulcan quite naturally was suspicious of everything and everyone around Khan. "Long visit today?"

"Collecting information," Marla replied and stood up.

"Are you leaving now?"

"Certainly," she said as Joachim gathered his equipment.

Joachim smiling at Spock, turned back to Khan and said, "Well, it appears I have everything I need."

"Everything?" Khan asked curiously.

"Yes."

For Marla that meant freeing Khan from the hospital lock up. Joachim would not actually take her with him to break his brother out, but she would be waiting with the car at one of the side doors.

Joachim planned his break for 0300. Most hospital staff were either tending to the very sick or fighting to stay awake. Finding the security room, he carefully disabled the alarms on the doors before heading up to the ward. One man was on duty fighting sleep. Joachim with the help of a small sedation mist put the man in dreamland with very little fuss.

Freeing Khan Joachim led him to the exit where Marla was waiting. And with that she said good-bye to her old life. And in spite of herself she could not hold back the tears. She was crying when Khan leaned over and kissed her cheek. It startled her so much, she almost missed the turn they had to take.

Joachim made her stop and get in the back while he drove. They had many hours to go before they reached their first safe place. He reasoned that it would be at least three hours before the authorities discovered Khan was missing. But first they had to change vehicles. Pulling into a car park, they left Marla's car for the one Joachim had purchased that afternoon. Then it was off the main thoroughfare into the valley and across back roads to a small town whose only claim to fame was it wasn't on the main road. Joachim hid the car under a tarp and then took them into the small frame house that was chosen specifically because it was an envirohouse half hidden underground.

"You chose well," Khan said and for the first time relaxed.

Joachim had moved all his computer equipment there the day before in preparation for springing his brother. They would lay very low for a week then move east. Star Fleet would be keeping a close eye on the people in cryostate, so there was no point in trying to free them right now. Besides they had no place to take them, and they weren't ready to commandeer a deep space ship just yet.

Marla watched the two men hunker down behind the computers and watch the news releases for anything on Khan's break. Exhausted mentally and physically, Marla disappeared into one of the bedrooms and threw herself on the bed. Sleep did not come easy, and when it did finally come it was troubled.

Three days into the ordeal and Star Fleet was nowhere near them. It helped that the admiralty was convinced they had gone down into Mexico. Joachim and Khan used to time to plot their next move. They were going after the men who had attacked Khan the last time in hopes of finding out the source of their information.

Marla went from feeling sorry for herself to being angry. Very angry. Khan and Joachim had virtually ignored her for three days, only taking notice when she offered them food or drink. And that didn't help her mood either. She wanted to scream and punch out something. She wanted to go home and wake up in her own bed. She half expected them to not notice if she decided to go outside and start walking home.

Frustrated beyond boredom, she went back to the bedroom she shared with a dead potted plant and slammed the door shut.

Joachim finding it all amusing glanced at his brother and said, "I think she's upset." When Khan didn't move away from the monitor, he added, "If you don't want her, I'll take her."

Khan frowned and said, "Find the nearest flight pad. I want to be out of here tomorrow."

"Military or civilian?"

"Military. And while you're at it, see where Cdr. Montgomery Scott resides now."

"Why?"

"The man will know where I can get another transportation device." Pushing the chair back, he stood up.

"Be gentle," Joachim teased him.

Khan smiled. "I've always been good with temperamental mares."


	11. Chapter 11

Khan sat on the edge of the bed and started to undress. Marla watched him a moment and then turned away saying, "I'm not interested now."

"Then I will sleep," replied and continued undressing. Nude, he turned his back to Marla and covered his waist with the sheet. Folding his arms across his chest and tucking his hands under his arms, he closed his eyes. Now Marla could come to him or not.

The mare had been finest horse that Khan had ever seen, pure white with delicate closely pricked ears. Abused by fools who had tried to conquer her with whips and ropes, she had watched him with white-rimmed eyes her nostrils quivering with fear at his scent. He held his hand out to her, sending her charging around the arena in a panic. She needed to know that he would never hurt her. He needed her to want his company.

When taming something rare and remarkable, she needed to know the choice was hers to accept him. But it was never really her choice. She would accept him eventually, he had made that decision for her. Only the time belonged to her.

After awhile the white mare, sent fleeing by the small rope he threw at her, wanted it to stop and turned to him. That was the moment she asked him to protect her, to be her friend. He turned away from her and waited for her to come to him. Hesitantly her eyes fixed on the man in the arena with her, she pawed the ground and then slowly very slowly approached him. When she was behind him, he turned and extended his hand to her. Her skin quivered when he touched her neck. Gently, gently he ran his hand over her whither and down her shoulder. Her reward was a carrot and freedom from the rope. Khan pressed her no more that day. Before the week was over he was riding the mare he named Heaven's Fire. Others might scoff at the notion of a king riding a mare instead of a stallion, but Khan understood that the mare was more precious than all the fine stallions in the world. She was the mother of her race. Heaven's Fire learned to love him, and he counted her as one of his greatest treasures.

Marla turned over and looked at his back. He had not moved for a good half hour and was breathing slowly and deeply. He must have been very tired to drop off to sleep that quickly. In spite of herself she lightly touched his back. How strong he was. Khan opened his eyes. Dragging her nails slowly down his back, she hesitated at the sheet. Should she or not? Oh yes, she should, but he turned over before she could. Studying his face in the fading light of the room, she thought he was dangerously beautiful like some great predator but not a cat. He met her thoughtful gaze, but when she didn't do anything he closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. This intrigued Marla.

Moving closer breathing in his scent and feeling the heat of his skin, she traced a light feathery pattern on his abdomen with her nails. When he didn't respond, she leaned over him and rubbed her face along his chest. He still didn't respond. Although it probably didn't hurt, him being impervious to pain after all, she licked his nipple and then bit down.

He grabbed a fistful of hair and lifted her head away from his body. "It's not nice to bite," he warned her softly. "What if I bit you?"

"I didn't think you felt pain," she said and slipped her bare leg over his thigh.

"There are many kinds of pain," he said and released her hair. "Do you know how careful I am with you?" He moved suddenly and flipped her over on her back, and was on top of her. "If I bit you," he began and kissed her neck and then let his teeth brush her skin, "I could rip…..the flesh….off your bone." Nuzzling her ear, sending delicious shivers through her body, he whispered, "Don't make me lose control. Neither of us would enjoy it."

"I want you…out of your mind," she countered as he nuzzled lower.

He chuckled deep in his chest. "It would be fatal," he assured her. "And I have need for you."

Carol Marcus had permission to enter the storage area where Khan's people were kept anytime she needed to be there. She carried in her lab coat a blue medical kit with syringes full of her deadly cocktail. She didn't know where Khan was, but she knew he would be back eventually for his people. Everyone accepted that they were the bait to lure him back to San Francisco. He was going to have one hell of a surprise when he got back. She also realized she needed to bring him to her.

The first cryocontainer contained the body of a young person maybe a teenager or slightly older. Carol pressed the numbers that opened the tube. The face belonged to a young girl. She wouldn't need as much poison as say a large male.

Carol chose ten people that afternoon, three females and seven males. Brain activity indicated that the females were affected by the deadly concoction almost immediately. She would return in a week to see if any of the males were still alive, and to finish poisoning the rest. Completing her little theater of the damned she readied herself for a visit to see Jim Kirk. She knew she couldn't tell him what she was up to, but no matter; this was for him and all the other innocent people that Khan had murdered. This was for her father who realized too late his mistake awakening that serial killer.

Leaving the storage building, she hopped in her car and drove across town to an apartment that looked like great grandma's attic. "Carol," Jim greeted and kissed her on the cheek. "Come in, I have dinner cooking now."

"I didn't know you were a chef."

"Spaghetti," he answered and handed her a glass of wine. She was so beautiful it took his breath away. "So what have you been up to today?"

"Helping set the trap for when he does return."

Jim frowned and took a sip of wine. It bugged the shit out of him that a crazy sob was out there somewhere plotting his next move against Star Fleet and no one could find him.

It was dark when Marla got up and went into the main room. Khan was asleep and didn't stir when she rose from the bed. She found the computers up and a note attached to one of the monitors. Joachim had found their targets and was now "Out for some air". They were going to the east coast to find the man who had authorized the attack on Khan. He was certain someone in Star Fleet was behind this but the only way to flush him out was to find the perpetrator. And he knew they would be keeping an extra close eye on his people now that he was free, and without a safe place to take them, they were safer where they were. Dr. McCoy for all his faults was a moral man.


	12. Chapter 12

Joachim put the finishing touches on Marla's new hair color and stepped back for a better look. "What do you think?" he asked Khan.

"It doesn't matter what I think," he replied. "As long as she can get into Souters Biotech Labs without drawing attention to herself."

"I don't know I think she looks good as a strawberry blonde," Joachim decided and handed her a mirror. "What do you think?"

Marla looked at herself in the mirror and was amazed at how she had gone from the dark brunette to a fair blonde, although nowhere near as fair as Marcus. "You think I can pull this off?" she asked skeptically.

"Just find the man in charge of research and where his office is located," Khan said. There were a hundred names associated with the biotech project and Khan was not interested in going through each and every one of them looking for one specific man or woman. Marla also needed to check out the security arrangements. How many men were at the desk? What was needed to pass through the secure areas? And what time did the shifts change. A lot to ask of her, but neither man dared show their face right now. Khan was wanted and no doubt in their system, and Joachim was going to break into their security once Marla had the information for him.

Wearing a new suit of clothes that a biotech associate would wear, Marla, donning a pair of silver tinted shades to hide her eyes, entered the twenty-story building with a briefcase in hand. A guard sat at security desk unaware that a small camera on the lapel of her labcoat was recording her interaction with him. His uniform, a simple black shirt and pants, would be of interest to Joachim who was watching in real time with Khan from a hotel room.

"How can I direct you, ma'am?" the guard asked curiously.

"Here to see Mr…." She looked at the names on the wall behind him. "Mr. Correy."

"Is he expecting you, ma'am?"

"I spoke to one of his people on mobile about arranging a visit. It was nothing definitive, but since I was in town I thought I would stop by."

"Yes, ma'am. His office is on the third floor."

"Thank-you," Marla replied, realizing only now that her heart had been racing. Going to the lift, she boarded it and rode alone up to the third floor. She didn't know if this was where she needed to be, but it got her past the guards. Looking at the floor panel, she said," There are twenty floors up and three floors sub."

Khan narrowed his eyes in thought and said, "I imagine what we are looking for is below ground."

"That would be the labs," Joachim agreed, "but the man with the information wouldn't be down there."

Kahn had to agree with him. "Marla, can you hear me?" he asked curiously.

"Affirmative."

"Go to the topmost floor."

Marla pressed the button that took her to the executive offices. Getting off the lift, she looked around. Four offices made of glass with a personal assistant for each VP and the president. Two men and one woman were VPs in charge of research and development, management, international affairs. The person they were looking for had to be the VP in charge of research and development. She turned towards the door that had the man's name on it: Edward Singleton.

Approaching the office of his personal secretary, she smiled and asked, "Is Mr. Singleton in?"

The man at the desk looked up, smiled and answered, "He has stepped out for a few hours."

"Oh, when will he be back?"

"He usually returns at five and works till ten. May I have your name, please?"

"Yes, certainly. Andrea Nelson. I'm from San Francisco." She handed him one of Joachim's cards and said, "He can call me at this number if he's interested in any current developments."

"I'll give it to him the moment he returns."

"Thank-you," Marla said and made sure he got a good look at her briefcase. Returning to the lift, she rode it back down to the main floor and got off. Smiling at the guard she stopped and asked, "What time do you get off?"

"Ten. Why?"

"I was thinking I might have a late night appointment, and I was wondering if you were the man on duty."

"I leave at nine."

"Does anyone take your place? I would like to leave him or her a message if that's so."

"Janna takes my place."

"And is Janna a woman?"

"Yes. You are asking a lot of questions."

"I'm being thorough…" she paused and looked at his name badge, "Jorge. Just being thorough." Continuing out the front door, she turned right and headed down the sidewalk towards a busy intersection. Before she reached it, Khan appeared, a hood covering most of his head and putting his face in shadows. With security cameras at each corner he did not acknowledge her as she passed him. Once he was certain all was safe, he returned to the hotel by a different route. Soon, he thought, soon he would know who was profiting off his blood and flesh.

Arriving at the room a few minutes after her, he said, "You were convincing."

"I am to please," she remarked, innuendo thick in her choice of words and the way she looked at him.

Joachim sitting at his computers cut his eyes to the side and asked, "Do I need to take a walk?"

Khan frowned at him and said, "No."

"Pity," Marla remarked with a touch of disappointment in her voice and took her shoes off to curl her legs under her in the overstuffed chair. Now they needed to wait for the call, which all were certain was going to come.

A half past five the mobile rang. Marla let it ring a couple of times before answering it. "Yes?"

"Is this about that madman in San Francisco?" the voice on the other end asked nervously.

Marla did not answer right away and then said, "Yes."

"Have they found him?"

"We know exactly where he is," she answered.

"So why are you contacting me?"

"I thought you might want to do some additional business. With Khan on the loose, raw materials are impossible to come by."

"You have something?"

"Blood and some tissue taken before he escaped."

"How much?"

Marla glanced at Khan and asked, "How much is the going rate?"

"I pay the commander 25,000 per unit," the voice on the other end replied greedily.

"It's worth more," Marla said with a hint of indifference in her voice.

"We're the only ones you can sell it to since he killed those others. We take the risk so we set the price. 25,000 is fair for raw materials. Unless you have some cardiac tissue then I can give you an additional 10,000. But I would have to verify it in the lab."

"I would expect nothing less," Marla agreed.

"So what kind of tissue do you have?"

"Cerebrospinal fluid."

"Really? Interesting. We've not looked into that yet."

"Could regenerate severed spines without all the complicated surgery," she dangled the carrot before him.

"True," he agreed.

"When would you like to meet to check out the product?.

"When would be convenient for you? After all we are trafficking in human body parts, which might be against the law in some places."

"Tell me about it. Be here at nine and bring your specimens."

"Be assured I will," Marla said confidentally. "And do have cash available. I don't deal in credits."

"Understood. Till then."

The mobile went silent. Marla glanced up at Khan and said, "We've got him."

Joachim, always the thorn in the ointment, reminded her, "You told him you had cerebrospinal fluid."

"So?"

Khan scowled at his brother. "How realistic do you want to make this?"

"Where do you want to get him?"

"In the lab," Khan answered and received a shrug from Joachim. "Really? You want a sample?"

"He might check it before he goes there."

Khan slipped off his shirt and took a seat with his back facing his brother. Marla now regretted offering such a rich prize, because the needle Joachim pulled out of his bag of tricks was awful. "Is there anything you don't have in there?" she asked apprehensively as Joachim readied the needle.

"I pretty much have everything I might need," he answered and pulled up a chair to sit behind Khan. "This may hurt," he said and found an indention between the vertebrae to insert the needle. "Don't move."

Khan didn't move his body while Joachim drew the clear fluid from his spine, but his face reflected the fact it hurt like a son of a bitch. In the middle of a painful grimace he looked to Marla and said, "If there is ever a next time…nothing that requires needles."

Joachim withdrew the needle and studied the pale yellowish fluid under the light. Khan was stronger than he in every way, but he had some remarkable healing powers as well. If he ever needed quick cash, he wondered how much his blood would bring?

"Put that up and leave," Khan told his brother, his eyes on Marla.

"Huh?"

"Go."

"Ah, yes. Let me put this in a safe place, and I'll go see what I can rustle up."

"Can you bring me back something to eat?" Marla asked hopefully.

"That's not what I'm rustling up," the younger brother said with a grin.

"Be back in time."

"Wouldn't miss this for anything."


	13. Chapter 13

Dr. McCoy entered the storage area to check on Khan's people and immediately realized that something was seriously wrong. Running his scanner over the first container, he looked at the results in horror. The woman inside the container was dead. Checking each of them he found all but four dead, and the four still alive were in serious danger of joining the others.

"We need to get them to sick bay!" he shouted at the two corpsmen with him. "And do not open the unit." His scanner was off the scales indicating something very scary was happening to them. He knew he needed to autopsy the deceased, but right now he had to try and save the living from whatever was turning their insides into mush.

Khan and Joachim waited in the van on the street listening to Marla head towards her appointment with Edward Singleton. The guard on duty recognized her from her earlier visit and notified Singleton that she was on her way up. Marla's heart was racing, but she prayed her face and demeanor were under better control. The woman who would be replacing the man on duty was already gearing up for her shift. She gave Marla a curious once over and then sat down at the counter.

Marla caught the lift and rode it up to the nearly empty offices, where Singleton waited. "My," he greeted her, "Daniel said you were attractive, but the security camera doesn't do you justice."

"Thank-you," Marla said and sat in the offered chair on the other side of the desk from Singleton.

"You have samples?"

"Of course," she said and placed the briefcase on the desk. "Naturally the full product is not with me, but I can get it within minutes."

"Ah?" he said and opened the attache case. Taking out the vial of blood, he looked it over carefully under the light and then reached into his desk drawer for sample stick. "May I?"

"Certainly," she agreed and watched as he opened the vial and dipped the stick into the blood.

"Khan's blood has some antibodies," Singleton explained, "that are not found in other humans. If it's his the stick will turn up….green." And there was no mistaking the clear change of color from white to green. "Remarkable," he said and turned greedy eyes to the spinal fluid." It was such a small quantity but it tested perfect. "Is this all you have?

Marla produced her mobile and showed him a picture of a vial full of he precious fluid. "I will go get it when we agree on a price."

"I told you what I pay," Singleton said and recapped the vial. "It's that or nothing."

Marla started to get up when he reached across the desk and stopped her. "Wait. I said I would pay extra for the spinal fluid. Ten thousand."

Marla smiled. "Very well. I will go get it."

"How long will it take you?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Then its not far. I'd be happy to walk with you."

Khan responded over her earpiece, "No."

"That would be foolish of me," Marla said and stood up. "My colleagues expect me to return with your decision."

"Colleagues?"

"I would be a foolish woman to walk into a man's office without some kind of protection."

"Indeed," Singleton agreed, his face reflecting his interest. "Then I will meet you in thirty minutes."

"I'll try to hurry it along," Marla promised. Leaving the samples on the desk, she added, "I'll pick up my briefcase when I come back."

"I look forward to completing our business."

Marla returned to the lift and rode it down to the ground floor. Joachim, fetching in black, sat at the desk monitoring the building's security. Where the woman was….was anyone's guess. Exiting the building she walked down the street towards the right and was met by Khan appearing out of the shadows and handing her a small attaché case.

She looked inside to make sure she knew what was there and then locked it shut. All business she turned her back on him and returned to the building with him following a few steps behind, his eyes alert to everything around them, his senses heightened to any sign of danger.

Marla returned to the lobby of the building and Stapleton was waiting for her. He had her attaché case in hand, which she presumed contained the money. With Joachim looking on they exchanged cases. Singleton set the case he had just received on the counter and opened it. His expression went from curious to extremely pleased. What he didn't notice was the man in black coat entering the lobby from the street.

"So it meets your standards, Mr. Singleton?" Marla asked curiously.

"Oh most definitely," he answered with a broad smile. "Most definitely." Only now noticing the second presence, he looked up and froze. He had never met Khan, but he'd seen enough pictures of him. "You!"

"Me," Khan agreed. "We need to talk."

"What about?"

"Life in general," Khan answered with a smile that usually meant someone was going to die. "Why don't we retire to your labs, I have some questions to ask."

"Call the police!" Singleton shouted at Joachim and backed away from the counter. "Call the police!"

"On it, sir," Joachim answered as Khan grabbed Singleton's arm and dragged him to the lift. "Both of you stay here," he called to his brother and mistress. "It won't take me long."

Singleton quite literally wet on himself in fear. Unable to speak except to beg for his life he let Khan drag him into the first lab. "What do you do in here?" Khan demanded sharply.

"Just research," Singleton stammered. "We help people."

"By trying to rip my heart out?"

"You were in no danger!" Singleton cried, "We weren't trying to kill you. Just help people!"

Khan looked contemptuously at the man and asked. "How much does that help cost people?" Singleton looked like a deer caught in the lights of a powerful lantern. "I have a question you can answer," Khan growled softly. "Who told you about me?"

"If I tell you will you spare me?"

"It depends. Who?"

"Dr. Carol Marcus. You killed her father."

"I remember it quite well," Khan said, his anger flaring that he had killed the father but had spared the daughter.

"Spare me," Singleton whispered hoarsely in near blind terror. "Please, I'll do anything!"

"That's just it," Khan said, his mind already made up. "You will do anything."

Singleton was dead of a broken neck before he was even aware that Khan was moving. Dropping the body to the ground. Khan removed a small detonation device from his coat pocket. Finding the tubing that various gases passed through, he set the charge for ten minutes. Once the gases ignited, particularly the oxygen, it would take out the lower levels of the building.

Returning to the lift, he found Joachim ready to send a larger device up to the business levels. The explosion that followed was magnificent. It looked as if the entire building was caught in a rolling fireball. Khan never looked back as he, Marla and Joachim walked casually down the street in the other direction.

Dr. McCoy in protective gear carefully examined the sick crewmen of Khan's. Three men and one woman were all that was left of the seventy plus people who had waited for him to wake them.

"Dr. McCoy!" someone shouted at him in the quarantine room.

"What?" he asked.

"Turn on the monitor. Mr. Spock thinks it's Khan."

McCoy reached up and turned on the overhead monitor. The news was all about the massive explosion in Princeton. No question about it, Khan had surfaced and was on the move again.


	14. Chapter 14

Stopping for fuel in Kansas on their way to Las Vegas, Joachim and Khan changed places behind the controls of the flier. Marla, her hair dyed even lighter now and looking less like the Star Fleet Commander and more like a favored mistress, entered the store to see about a drink and a stop at the rest room. When Khan drove there was no stopping.

A main fueling depot on the east west travel route, the place was full of people and therefore relatively safe from anyone noticing her. A row of monitors that covered everything from weather reports in Russia to the latest news out of New York lined the wall above the coolers at the back of the store. The explosion in Princeton a week earlier was still major news and a picture of Khan was plastered on the monitor with dangerous, call the police if seen. She turned away and was about to check out the facilities when a voice she knew well spoke up behind her…on the monitor.

"Marla McGivers," Dr. McCoy spoke his prerecorded message, "please call me It's very important. I cannot stress it enough. Call me the moment you see this." And a number was posted. The number was Star Fleet. A chilling fear swept through Marla's body. She couldn't breathe and then when she could it came too quickly. Looking around, she found herself staring into Joachim's eyes. He had seen it too. Hurrying to take care of her personal business, she tried to imagine why Dr. McCoy had reached out to her like that.

When she returned to the flier, Joachim had the motor running and shades hiding his eyes from the western sun. Khan was lying in the back seat with one knee up and forearm across his eyes. He didn't need to sleep often, but he had been running on adrenalin alone the past few days. It was his idea to lighten her hair even more.

As Joachim was pulling out of the station, Khan asked without emotion, "Why do you think he did that?"

Playing stupid with him only raised his ire, and since Marla understood the methods of divide and conquer, that was what she said. "I imagine Dr. McCoy wants to raise doubt in me or you, to separate us." She glanced over the seat and the shine of one eye told her he was watching her reaction to his question within the shadow of his forearm.

"If you want to leave, I will let you," he said tonelessly.

Marla was not so sure about that. Was he testing her loyalty? "I don't want to go," she replied with the same lack of emotion in her voice. "Are you having second thoughts?"

"I don't get second thoughts," he answered slowly and closed his eyes. He was bone tired and wanted to sleep uninterrupted for the rest of their journey. Before his mind blocked out the light and droning noise, Marla reached across the seat and rubbed his inner thigh. It was possessive and charged with sexual energy. He reasoned she was either in heat or pregnant. Either way the egotist within him would see her bred before the year was up.

Joachim pulled up to the hotel's entranceway and allowed Marla to get out and procure them some rooms. Khan stayed on his back while under the lights, but the moment Joachim pulled away he raised his head and looked around. He and Marla had their ears on so they could speak to each other and he could hear what was going on with her. There was the usual hotel lobby chatter. A desk clerk asked her if she had made reservations, and she had, under the name of Candy Monroe. It sounded like a stripper's name, but then Marla did not exactly look like a nun at the moment. If she bent over she would be giving the lobby a free shot.

"You had two rooms reserved?" the man at the desk asked.

"Yes, one for me, and one for my brother," she answered. "I'm paying cash."

"Yes, ma'am. How long do you plan on staying?"

"A couple of days, I'm sure. I will pay for a week in advance, though."

"Very good, ma'am."

Once everything was arranged and paid for, Marla went straight up to the rooms with connecting doors and notified Khan and Joachim that all was well. They brought up two of Joachim's computers in cases and set one up in each room, one set to scan all law enforcement bureaus in Las Vegas. Anything that might mean danger would set off a small alarm. Key words were their names and Star Fleet.

While Joachim took a shower, Khan took off his boots and sat cross-legged on his bed with Joachim's computer on rapid search. It was important they stayed abreast of what the law and Star Fleet was up to. Marla decided to take her own shower since it seemed 'the boys' were going to be plotting their next moves for the rest of the evening.

When she came out of the shower, the adjoining door was closed and Khan was still sitting cross-legged on the bed with the computer minus his shirt. "I want you to call Dr. McCoy," he said tonelessly.

"I'd rather not," she said while toweling her hair dry. "I know what he will say. I thought Joachim and you were going to work tonight."

"He is tired," Khan stated matter of factly his eyes on the computer. She climbed on the bed behind him and continued towel drying her hair. Tossing the towel aside she crawled up behind him and leaned closer to capture his left ear lobe between her teeth…not to bite or hurt, but because she really wanted to distract him. Her tongue and hot breath in his ear certainly had the desired effect on him.

Releasing his ear, she whispered, "I want to play."

"Ánd I want you to call Dr. McCoy," he repeated with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

She curled around him like a great sexy cat and asked, "Can't we play first?"

He grabbed her wrists and stretched her back on the bed. When she wiggled in protest he stretched her more, his free hand taking complete possession of her body. He could do what he wanted and there was nothing Marla could do to stop him. "I don't like it when anyone tells me no," he growled softly in her ear. "Sshhh, don't say anything."

"Please," she whimpered.

Sometimes asking the devil for mercy was the worst thing you could do. Marla was played slowly, methodically, taken to the pentacle and then brought back down without ever reaching the top. He could watch her unmoved with tears streaming down her face and then resume her punishment with a kiss. When he was ready to bring it to an end, he took possession of her body completely and totally, and Marla lost in the emotions and sensations of being completely consumed by him witnessed the beauty the devil was famous for. At that moment of perfection, she owned him as much as he owned her.

With passion spent, he rolled on his back and closed his eyes. "Get my ear piece and call Dr. McCoy," told her.

Marla did as she was told, handing him the earpiece before digging out her mobile and calling the number she had seen on the monitor. It rang a few times and then a man's voice answered. "McCoy here."

"This is Marla."

"Marla! Where are you?"

"You know I can't tell you that," she said, "And don't try to home on it. Tracking devices are easy to disable."

"Then I take it you are still with Khan?"

"I am."

There was a long pause. "Marla, can he hear you right now?"

Khan shook his head. "No," she answered. "Why?"

"Someone has killed most of his people. I've been able to save four, but once he finds out, he will become extremely dangerous. You need to get away from him."

Marla didn't need to be told how dangerous he could become. Khan's face was a mask of horror and rage. "Dr. McCoy," he spoke up grimly, "who did this?"

"Khan? Dammit, Marla! You need to let her go!" McCoy pleaded passionately.

"I keep what's mine," Khan responded coldly, the violent passions stirring in his breast not betrayed by his voice. Taking the mobile from Marla, he asked, "Who killed my people, Dr. McCoy?"

"I don't know," McCoy answered, the cold calm in Khan's voice as terrifying as the still before a deadly storm.

"And the four you saved?"

"Three men and one woman. I don't know their names. They are still very sick and in quarantine."

"Tell them I will be there soon," Khan said and closely the mobile case. Then, with his emotions raw and close to the surface, he turned over and gave vent to the pain that wracked him. Marla wanted to touch him but feared the pain and anger she was witnessing. Not knowing what to do, she thought maybe Joachim needed to know. Rapping lightly on the adjoining door, she waited until his blond head appeared before her. He didn't ask what was wrong or inquire about anything foolish. He went to Khan and understood without asking that something very bad had happened.


	15. Chapter 15

Dr. McCoy glanced back at Kirk and said, "Well, he knows where to come."

"We'll be ready for him," Kirk assured him and then smiled at Carol. He knew Khan was coming after her because she had unintentionally let Dr. McCoy's work slip to the wrong people. Carol had realized her life was in serious danger when the medical lab went up in Princeton forcing her to come to him for help and advice. Of course he would protect her from that mad man. And now that the trap was set, all they had to do was wait for Khan to present himself. Fortunately Star Fleet had not rescinded its orders to kill if unable to take alive.

Spock also believed Khan would come after them, but he suspected the man would reconnoiter the base before making his move. It was even possible he would return to the storage area to make certain they weren't lying to him. "It would be wise to set up extra surveillance."

Khan was quiet, locked in his own thoughts, his eyes closed to block out any outside influence. Marla's bare thigh was his pillow her fingers soothing in his hair. Joachim was sitting in the chair on the right side of the bed, his face drawn in pain and stained from tears that he had been unable to control. Now he was numb from thinking too hard and feeling too much.

Marla wanted to say something but feared angering either of them. Still she could not swallow it down. "This is a trap," she said and stopped stroking his hair.

"I know," Khan said tonelessly and opened his eyes. Marla thought her heart would break staring down at his face. He knew he had to try and free what was left of his people, but he also knew there would be 'guns' waiting for him.

"So we don't walk into it," Joachim spoke up angrily.

"That is exactly what I must do," Khan replied almost wearily. "They will focus on me and you will rescue our people."

Joachim did not say anything right away, instead staring at his brother with a troubled look in his eyes. If this was going to work, he needed to find them and then work up a survivable plan.

Three weeks of detailed studies and tapping into Star Fleet surveillance and security systems, Joachim discovered that Star Fleet had evacuated the small hospital and moved all operations to the main base hospital. The only patients present belonged to Dr. McCoy in medical lock up.

San Francisco's famous fog crawled like a serpent over the streets and hills of the city. Marla, driving the flier, stopped it on a side street and waited for Khan and Joachim, who refused to be separated from him, to climb out. Wearing long dark hooded coats, weapons hidden beneath, the two men started walking towards their target. Theirs was a calculated guess that Star Fleet would not be expecting them to come on foot. Marla drove closer and parked the flier near the rear entrance where the emergency room had been. It was locked, but Khan had given her a percussion bomb that would blow the doors off the hinges. It was his intention to make so much noise that no one would notice one more smaller explosion. Sitting a street over, aware that there were security personnel guarding the rear entrance and would be until hell broke loose. Sitting there waiting for it to begin, she wondered what it was going to be like once it got quiet again.

Dr. McCoy yawned and stretched. Another quiet night. Looking at Jim, who was watching a game from Japan on the monitor, he said, "Another no show."

Spock, reading a book, looked up and said, "If he's going to attack, a foggy night would be ideal."

"Maybe he's given up," Jim opined and smiled at Carol who was sticking close to him.

"He'll be here," she assured him. "Waiting is harder on him than us."

"I don't see how that's possible," McCoy said and looked through the glass window at his illustrious patients who were now for all extensive purposes healed. One of the men, a massive creature named Andrei, was the voice of the group. None of the others ever spoke, simply letting him be their voice.

Khan took it upon himself to start the fireworks by taking out the first two Star Fleet guards that they came across. Joachim drew a rifle from under his coat and took out a man on the roof. The show was on in all its bloody gore.

Jim heard the explosion of a percussion grenade going off like a heavy pop and took off running with Spock and Carol behind him. He had a mental image of Khan taking on the Klingons in his head and didn't want to see Star Fleet decimated the same way.

Marla attached the explosive device to the doors and got out of the way. With everyone hurrying to the front of the building where all hell was breaking loose, she sprinted down the darkened passages to the stairwell. Racing up several flights to the secure sickbay, a phaser set on stun in her hand, she burst in and found Dr. McCoy alone. He instinctively raised his hands upon seeing the weapon pointed at him.

"Marla, don't do this," he said as she hurried to the secure cell and typed in the numbers that would free Khan's people.

The door swung open freeing the three men and one woman. They were tall and fair but not like Joachim. And when Andrei spoke, it was with an old Earth Slavic accent. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm with Khan," she answered. "I'm taking you to him."

"Give me the weapon," he said and held out his hand. Marla hesitated but then gave him the phaser. He was probably a better marksman than she. "Thank-you," he said and gave her an intimate once over that made her feel uncomfortable. "Now we leave," he said. "Doctor, if you will join us."

Marla hesitated. "We don't need Dr. McCoy. Khan said nothing about bringing him."

Andrei looked around and then said, "Khan is not here. My call. Lead on Khan's woman."

Marla feared she had made a big mistake giving Andrei her phaser, but it was too late to ask for it back. Now they needed to get away before anyone came looking for Dr. McCoy.

The signal to withdraw would come from Marla when she was safely away in the flier with the survivors. Until then it was terrorize Star Fleet. Throwing the front of his coat open and withdrawing two hand weapons that resembled a throwback to the hand pieces of the twentieth century but with ten times the firepower.

Carol could now see his vulnerable abdomen "Jim," she said and held up the sedation rifle. "It's already loaded. Hit him just below his sternum."

Jim took the rifle and gave Carol a curious smile. If phasers couldn't knock the son of a bitch down, what was a tranquilizer going to do? Sighting on the space between his ribs just below his sternum, Jim fired. Hit!

Jim lowered the rifle and watched as Khan swiped the dart away. At first it seemed as if the dart did not affect him, then the mad man stumbled. Khan ended his attack and took off running back into the shadows of the fog with his second running after him.

"We need to take after them," Spock said.

"No," Carol said, "Khan won't be back."


	16. Chapter 16

Khan stopped, his heart pounding so hard he thought it would burst. What had they done to him? Joachim returned to him but while he could see Joachim's lips moving, he couldn't understand him over the buzz in his ears. Joachim took his arm and gently urged him to keep going. The men at Star Fleet would certainly be coming after them, and they needed to get to their escape vehicle. Sucking in air that was becoming harder to breathe, he forced himself back into a run. Not much farther.

Marla arrived at their hiding place in a subterranean building that had once served as shelter for war victims. Andrei motioned with the phaser for his companions to do a military style sweep of the rooms before going off guard. Dr. McCoy was tied to a chair, gagged and then basically ignored. This suited him well until he noticed Marla was getting worried. Apparently Khan was late. This was not good, not good at all.

Just before McCoy started to panic, the door opened and the blond man came in half carrying half dragging Khan, who did not look well at all. McCoy instantly recognized the problem. Khan had the same symptoms as his dead crew. The blond man, Joachim, along with one of the men with Andrei moved Khan to a back room in another part of the bunker.

When Joachim returned to the main room, he took a look at McCoy and acted surprised upon seeing him sitting there. "Who's idea was this?" he asked angrily.

"Mine," Andrei answered without apology. "He's a doctor. Maybe he can look at your brother and fix him."

McCoy grimaced. There was clearly no love between Joachim and Andrei. The only thing keeping them from escalating their dislike was Khan, who from initial observation was very sick. Joachim untied his ropes and forced him to stand. McCoy was not going to get testy with Superman number two. If things went south, Joachim might be the one to root for

Removing McCoy's gag, he practically dragged him back to the make shift infirmary where Marla and Andrei's female companion stood watch over them. The tall blonde woman, Suzanne, armed with one of Khan's stowed away weapons, gave him a cool eye before turning her attention back to Khan. Marla was seated on the bed trying to make him comfortable although that was literally impossible. He wanted to stay on his left side and resisted McCoy's attempt to move him on his back. Without his equipment McCoy had no way of knowing what was exactly going on in Khan's body. He skin was burning and sweat covered his forehead.

"Can you get him on his back?" he asked Joachim.

Joachim took Marla's place and gently but firmly forced his brother on his back. There was a bloody froth at the corner of his mouth, which McCoy knew from the others was from a virus that specifically attacked the heart and lungs. The abdominal rigidity that was making lying on his back so difficult came from tetanus. Any one of those viruses and the three or four others that were attacking him, his body could have built up a quick immunity towards. Together was a death sentence.

"Without my equipment there is nothing I can do," McCoy said honestly.

"Pity," Andrei said from the door. "But when he dies, we will honor him like a true king." His eyes slid to Marla, and they were frightening. "Such an honor."

"Who the hell are you?" Bones demanded angrily.

"Andrei Graf," he answered rather flamboyantly. "At your service."

"He owes his allegiance to my brother," Joachim replied uneasily.

"My…king," Graf answered rather ominously with eyes only for Joachim. "When he dies my obligation will be fulfilled."

McCoy and Joachim heard Khan mutter something and turned back to him. "What?" Joachim asked.

It took great effort, but Khan turned back and answered, "Not….dead…yet."

"Not yet," Andrei agreed and inclined his head. "And I am a man of his word." Inclining his head, he turned on his heel and left.

The other Augments moved to the bed and knelt beside it. "Khan, what would you have of us?" the woman asked quietly. McCoy squeezed out of the way did not hear what Khan whispered to her or the other men. Once the words were spoken he rolled on his side in a tight curl. Joachim, not knowing what else to do, rubbed his shoulder.

When Marla tried to rejoin him on the bed, Bones took her by the arm and said, "It's too dangerous. His sweat is poison."

Marla hesitated. "I have to," she finally said. Lying behind him, she pressed her body close to his and wrapped her arm over his. She could feel him trembling and did not know if it was from cold or fever. Let everyone else figure out what to do next, her part of the game was over for the time being. She didn't want him to die, nor did she want to die herself, but she just couldn't leave him alone.

"Come on," Joachim told McCoy.

Daring a moment of bravery, McCoy asked Joachim, "Who is that man?"

Joachim glanced down the passage and then said, "A mass murder my brother brought to heel. He tried to wipe out Singapore." McCoy stared at Joachim in disbelief. "Suzanne, Frederick and Antoni helped him catch Andrei. If Khan dies, with him owing no one any allegiance, he will make what my brother did this past year look like child's play. Khan reacts to injustice. Andrei just likes to kill things, people, buildings, cities."

Suzanne, brushing past McCoy and heading down the passage, called over her shoulder, "He means what he says about killing you and the woman." She paused and glanced back. "You because he has no need for you, and her because she belongs to Khan."


	17. Chapter 17

Joachim left McCoy in the room with Marla and Khan and the woman Suzanne, who acted as if she were keeping watch, which she might have been, hard to tell with people who didn't need to sleep like normal people. Khan was definitely not resting. When he wasn't fighting to breathe, he was trying to control the pain racking his body. Marla couldn't leave his side for very long before he'd start calling for her. He wanted her there where he could rap his arms around her body and ride the horror that was happening to him a little easier. He left bruises on her arms from clutching at her and sometimes McCoy feared he would unintentionally break her arm, but Marla never complained or sought anyone's help. If he died, she died. McCoy could see she had already accepted that.

"What do you need to help him?" Suzanne asked quietly and drew him out of his reverie.

"My sickbay," McCoy answered. It was easy to look at her, except the dying mad man always drew him back.

"What do you need that I can carry?" she asked again.

McCoy sitting in an old office chair looked up at the woman standing over him and asked, "Why?"

"If Andrei takes over, we may all die," she replied. "I doubt anyone but Khan has his respect."

"Then why were you with him?" McCoy asked almost angrily.

"We weren't," she explained. "I helped Khan capture and force an oath of allegiance on him. It was the only time in his life that anyone bested him. If Khan dies there will be no oath to keep him from destroying everything or you. Now I ask again, what do you need?"

"A portable ventilator would be good. If I can keep his lungs inflated and draw the excess blood off…"

"What else?"

"Antivirals."

"What of our blood? Did you not use them on us?"

"Yes, that might work," McCoy agreed. "I would need syringes, but where would you go to get them? Star Fleet will be looking for you."

Suzanne hesitated a moment and then left the room in a hurry. McCoy did not follow, unsure if Joachim or Andrei would let her leave their safe house. She returned a moment later and said, "Come on."

"Where are we going?" he asked suspiciously.

"We'll know in a minute," she said and led him back to the main room where Joachim was at his computer and Andrei was peering at the monitor over his shoulder.

"This is the closest pharmacy I could find," Joachim said. "Should take you an hour to get there on foot with him along."

"I wouldn't take that long," Andrei added for effect. "Khan's not looking so good."

Dr. McCoy figured out their plan real quick. "You want us to steal what I need?"

"No returning to Star Fleet," Suzanne explained and accepted a larger piece from one of her companions. With a longer rifle strapped to her body under the long coat, she was ready to go, except that Dr. McCoy did not look like he belonged with her. "He needs to look the part," she said.

"I can't," he protested.

"Then we kill you now," Andrei decided aloud. "Better yet, I will go too. If the doctor tries to betray us, I will personally slit his throat."

McCoy had a quick change of heart. Donning the offered long coat, he followed Suzanne out of the passageway with Andrei, armed to the teeth, following. He was certain the streets and skies over San Francisco would be filled with military and civilian police, and he was right, but Andrei and Suzanne, from studying an old map, were not going to the surface. The sewers were going to be their roadway. Built after the stabilizing of the California faults the sewers collected water and carried it to the treatment plant.

Reaching an ancient ladder that took them to a drainage connection off a main street, Suzanne stepped back and waited for Andrei to check it out first. McCoy for a fleeting moment thought about running, but Suzanne, perhaps reading his mind, very quietly said, "He will kill you."

McCoy stopped thinking about running away. Instead he considered how amazing it was that in the six hours since their 'jail break', Khan's people were moving freely about San Francisco like they owned the place. Hoping that they didn't know about sophisticated security devices, which would allow alarms to go off, his hopes were dashed when Andrei with Joachim speaking in his ear asked about such measures. Joachim had already tapped into the system and set up a trickle which shut down the main security system but allowed the computer that controlled it think that it was still working, there by avoiding a secondary system from kicking in.

Suzanne knew more about breaking 'quietly' into a building than Andrei and using a few devices that she had picked up lying around their safe house, she opened a rear door and let them inside. Andrei took a look out position while Suzanne walked around the facility with McCoy looking for anything that might help them with Khan. McCoy took notice that she was grabbing extra syringes and large beveled needles. She stuffed gauze and bandages into her pockets. When he passed something she thought they would need, she grabbed it and stuffed it in his pockets. And any mechanical device that could help Khan breathe better or feel less pain, she grabbed which meant they grabbed handfuls of sedatives and pain killers out of lock up.

Once there was nothing left to steal, they slipped out as quietly as they had arrived. It would be a few more hours before the break in would be realized, before anyone noticed the smudged LM on the counter top.

McCoy was exhausted when they reached the shelter. He had not slept in awhile and was beginning to wind down physically and emotionally. Only he couldn't stop. Khan was in crisis, unable to breath and dripping blood from his nose and the corner of his mouth. Every grasp drew it back into his lungs sending him into a panic. McCoy hooked everything he had up to suction it away. For a second their eyes met, one panicked, the other worried. Khan was dying hard. On top of that every other virus was wrecking havoc on his body. An ordinary man would have been dead hours ago; Khan was not ordinary.

Momentarily clearing his airway, McCoy found Suzanne waiting with a pain killer. If Khan could rest just a little, it would allow Bones some rest before he had to work out an antidote. If it was possible.

Khan slowly sank back against Marla, his body unwinding as the pain subsided.

Suzanne turned to McCoy and said, "We'll give you a few hours, then you must work."

McCoy didn't argue. Juust to be able to rest.


	18. Chapter 18

Dr. McCoy awoke to the sound of Khan choking again. He was on his hands and knees, blood dripping from his mouth and nose. Joachim was trying to clear his airway, but he was not going deep enough into Khan's throat to keep from hurting him. McCoy knew hurting Khan was the least of his problems. Andrei watched at the door with a cold eye to the events. Suzanne and Marla were trying to get Khan to stop struggling, but he was stronger than both women combined.

Jumping up McCoy snapped at Joachim to hold his brother as still as possible and without fan fare he decided to bypass his mouth and nostrils. Using a stolen scalpel he performed a tracheotomy and stuck the tube into the hole. Khan's eyes rolled white as the strength just left his body. He collapsed in Joachim's arms, but McCoy was not going to let him die if he could help it.

Suzanne on the bed but not in the area of action watched McCoy fight to keep Khan breathing. Suddenly Khan's chest expanded with a great gulp of air. The lifeless glaze in his eyes sharpened and lost their out of focus look. Antoni gave him a shot of neomorph to help him relax.

"You must do something now!" Joachim yelled at McCoy as he stripped Khan's bloody clothes off him. "Now!"

McCoy didn't argue. All he had to do was look at Andrei to realize that the next episode would be terminal event in more ways than one. Suzanne led him back to the extra room and said, "I will help you."

"That's good, because I don't know what I'm doing without a microscope," he said wearily. "We can try using your plasma for the antibodies, but I don't know how much is needed, or if transfusing your plasma will even work." He turned to the woman beside and was surprised when she kissed him. "What was that for?" he asked breathlessly.

"For being so very brave," she answered and kissed him again, the kiss lasting a few seconds longer this time.

To say it surprised McCoy was an understatement. Drawing back from her, he cleared his throat and said, "We need to do this first."

"Of course," she said with an almost shy smile.

The first blood drawn and the plasma separated came from Suzanne. It wasn't perfect, but McCoy prayed it still carried enough antibodies to at least begin the process. He took it to Khan who was half sitting up to help his breathing and sedated enough to help him relax. His head rested in Marla's lap.

McCoy crouched by the side of the bed and lifted Khan's left arm. Locating the brachial vein, he injected Suzanne's plasma into Khan's body. He was certain this would not be enough to undo all the damage, but it was a start. "I need the men to give blood," he said after he had completed the injection.

"Not me," Andrei growled softly. "I don't trust you."

Joachim glared at Andrei but said nothing to him. "You can have my blood," he offered McCoy.

"That's fine, but I need antibodies and you don't have any."

Joachim reached for the used syringe and before McCoy could stop him, he plunged it into his thigh. "That should start the process."

McCoy wasn't certain infecting himself with his brother's blood was the way to go, but as he had already done it, McCoy simply nodded and turned to the other men. "Will you help? I don't want to keep poking Suzanne."

Frederick looked at Antoni and then offered his arm, sleeve rolled up to McCoy. Antoni followed suit and by the end of the day Khan had received three plasma injections. He still bled but not as bad, which was more than encouraging. When he received a pain shot so he could rest, he fell into a relaxed sleep with no sign of guarding.

Needing to have plasma ready for another round of treatment, he and Suzanne retired to their workroom. Once more Suzanne leaned in to kiss him. This time McCoy met her kiss with a new passion of his own. He didn't want to let her go, nor she him.

"We'll get caught," he whispered against her lips.

"Joachim knows," she answered and reached for his belt.

McCoy drew back so he could look into her eyes. "Why does he know?"

"I asked him," she answered.

Ok that was odd, but it meant, he hoped, that they wouldn't be interrupted, for a little while anyway. For a fleeting second he thought about Jim and Mr. Spock probably tearing up the city looking for him. He felt a twinge of guilt when Suzanne unzipped his trousers and knelt in front of him. Her tongue was so talented he was certain he was going to lose his mind. Instead of finishing him off that way, she skinned her trousers down and hopped on the counter. McCoy finished her off sitting there.

Catching his breath, he looked into her face and found a smile. "I know that was hurried," he apologized.

"I've been thinking about fucking you all day," she confessed surprising him with not just her honestly but the simple matter of fact way that she stated it.

"Well, I'm glad to oblige," McCoy said and adjusted his trousers. When he had been taken captive, he had expected a lot of things but not this. When he looked back into her eyes, she was grinning at him. "What?"

"I think you are so handsome," she answered.

McCoy smiled. "I can understand that," he agreed forgetting for a moment that she was not quite human, or at least a human that he was familiar with. But the moment the thought touched his consciousness he frowned. She really wasn't human, was she? "My friends are looking for me."

She hopped off the counter and said, "I know. It was never their intention to take you captive. Andrei took that upon himself."

"Then help me get away," he half pleaded with her.

She stopped smiling, but there was no anger in her eyes. "I can not do that," she answered. "You would bring them back here, and Khan has had enough of your tender mercies."

"I just don't want to be at his tender mercies when he feels better," McCoy replied earnestly. "What do you think he will do to me?"

"Thank-you, I hope," she said although there was some doubt in her eyes.

"Hope?" McCoy asked skeptically.

"Not to worry. He's more likely to kill me than you," she said, although her tone did not indicate any fear.

McCoy did not want to know why, although something told him it had to do with what they had just done. Good God, had he just…? Oh merciful God, no! This was one of those times he wasn't all that curious. She leaned forward and kissed him again, and against his better judgment, he felt the blood start pumping hot again when her tongue slipped into his mouth and teased him mercilessly. What the hell! If Khan was going to kill him over the first time, he might as well enjoy it a second time…and a third. Damn this woman was insatiable.

After what was a remarkably peaceful night, McCoy injected Khan with the hyped plasma from Suzanne and the men. As he was finishing the injection, he detected a sliver of silver blue light watching him with detached interest. Khan was awake.

"How do you feel?" he asked the man, hoping to stay on his good side by keeping any unnecessary judgment out of his tone.

Naked Khan stretched and it was the scariest thing McCoy had ever been THAT close to. Khan might still be under the weather, but he was well enough to break Bones and both legs just for the fun of it.


	19. Chapter 19

Dr. McCoy for safeties sake gave Marla a shot to ensure that there was no linger bugs in her system. While giving her an impromptu physical, he could not help but see that she was pregnant. Keeping it to himself, unsure if she was aware of it, he returned to his little make shift lab where Suzanne was cleaning up their mess.

"Marla's pregnant," he told her.

She stopped wiping down the counter and said, "That will please Khan."

"He needs to let her go," McCoy stated firmly.

"Not now, he won't," she said and tossed the cleaning rag aside. "And we don't keep secrets if we want to stay on his good side." She left the room with McCoy following to see what she was going to do. Suzanne knew better than anyone what punishments Khan inflicted on those who kept things from him. "Khan," she spoke up, drawing his attention away from the chat he was having with his brother, "have you looked at your woman."

Khan didn't say anything but gave Marla a careful scrutiny. "She looks tired. Understandable."

"She's pregnant," Suzanne informed him.

Khan smiled and said, "At last." And he took Marla into his arms. It was what he wanted; only Andrei did not seem pleased for their leader. He and Suzanne locked eyes, and McCoy who was keeping an eye on Suzanne noticed the hate slip between them. Khan might be able to control Andrei, but that didn't make the rest of them safe.

Of course Khan now wanted to move. Their safe place was not going to be safe much longer with Star Fleet's net drawing tighter. He and those loyal to him huddled around Joachim's computer searching the communications for the locations Star Fleet was still looking.

Suzanne venturing to speak with Khan about Dr. McCoy approached him when he stopped to get something to drink. In the run down kitchen he opened a bottle of water and drank it down before noticing her. Smiling he held out his hand and said, "Suzanne, come."

Treading a delicate thread of emotions, she took his hand and allowed him to pull her closer. Once ages ago his touch had been enough to make her bend her heart to his will. She would have done anything he asked of her and had, but now she knew this was not what she wanted. Khan was a force who swallowed you piece by piece until there was nothing left of the individual. But there was still passion in his kiss, still fire in his touch and she yielding to it, until she remembered why she no longer wanted to die in that kiss.

"No, please," she said and drew back, surprising him by her reaction. "I need to speak with you."

"What about?" he asked curiously and continued to hold her face gently in his hands.

"Please let Dr. McCoy go," she answered and prayed the fear she suddenly felt was not in her eyes.

He leaned his face closer to hers and rubbed his cheek against her face and into her hair. It was seductive to watch but deadly to be on the receiving end of. "Oh Suzanne," he almost purred like some great deadly cat, "you've fucked him."

Suzanne didn't deny it, but she did fight to get her fear under control. "When he saved you, I saw worth in him."

"Worth?" he repeated so softly and dangerously. Releasing her head, he took her hand in his and brought her back to the main room. He made straight for McCoy who was seated in a chair trying to not be noticed. "How many times have you fucked her?" Khan demanded.

Genuinely alarmed McCoy stood up and said, "Can't we discuss this like sane people?"

"I am discussing it." Khan replied and drew Suzanne against him, his arms crossing her body and holding her in place. "Did you fuck her?"

"Khan, please," Suzanne pleaded. "I…"

"I seduced her!" McCoy suddenly snapped. "I took advantage of her."

Khan grinned and started laughing, confusing everyone. Releasing Suzanne he nudged her towards McCoy and said, "That is sweet. Both prepared to suffer for the other."

McCoy drew Suzanne towards him and waited for the other shoe to drop. Khan seemed to be in a genuinely good mood, but he didn't trust the man. "Dr. McCoy, because you saved my life, I will spare you yours. And since Suzanne prefers your company to mine, she may stay with you."

Andrei, his pale eyes hard as ice and just as cold, growled, "So the mighty Khan loses a woman to a lesser man while his own woman is a lesser being."

Khan's humor died in a heartbeat. Turning to Andrei, he hissed, "Do not presume to judge me. Do not do it."

Andrei dropped his eyes much like a beta wolf assuming the submissive role before an alpha. "It only seems wrong for one of our females to be given to a lesser male."

Khan was not going to let Andrei divide his thoughts. Basically dismissing the man by ignoring him, he turned to Joachim and asked, "Do we know where Kirk lives?"

McCoy alarmed by the question, asked, "Why do you want to know where he lives?"

"He is the one who shot me with the poison, the same poison that killed my people. I need to return the favor."

"Jim had nothing to do with your peoples' death. I bet my life on that. He's not a monster murdering helpless people. "

Khan considered it a moment. Who had been with Kirk? Who had been with him? Poisonous fruit does not fall far from the tree. Dr. Marcus had opportunity and motive. Keeping his own council, he went back to the private room to see about Marla. She was tired and Dr. McCoy was of the opinion that she was just worn out from all the running. Khan needed to free her.

Slipping off his boots, Khan crawled on the bed beside her and curled her body into his. He could feel the weariness in her body and regretted he had no place safe to take her. But he just couldn't let Star Fleet get away with murdering his people. They had to pay. Running his hand down her body and resting it on her abdomen he smiled and kissed the side of her face.

Andrei pretended it didn't bother him, but Khan's obsession with the inferior woman was a blatant betrayal of who they were. A world on fire was what they needed, a world in ashes to be reborn in a new god's image. But first he had some things he needed to do.


	20. Chapter 20

Andrei followed Joachim and Khan's reasoning to Carol Marcus as the person who had murdered their companions and tried to kill Khan. Khan was angry and hurt over this revelation. Apparently Carol had befriended him and for a short while there had been some 'kindness' associated with their relationship. Everything turned when he killed her father, but how long was Khan supposed to keep his anger inside while listening to Marcus talk about killing him. Every other word out of the admiral's mouth was his need to put Khan down like an animal calling him a creature and everything but a man. And the Russian recoiled when he learned his king had gotten down on his knees and begged Marcus to revive them. Khan had begged an inferior creature for their lives?

Andrei was for a moment sympathetic to Khan's plight, but it was all negated when Khan showed tenderness towards that woman. Marla McGiver was another mongrel in need of killing. And Suzanne protecting that doctor! She was one of them, and if someone should have had her, it was him.

They needed to get back to what set them apart from everyone else. They had no females of their own, save Suzanne and she was besotted with that DOCTOR. This was just not right. Maybe Khan was too tired and worn out to remain their king. The humans had beaten him down until there was nothing left of the fierce warrior that he had vowed to follow to the end.

"We move tomorrow," Khan announced as he moved through their hiding place. "Starfleet is starting to work their way here.

"What of McCoy?" Suzanne asked quietly but with worry in her eyes.

"What of him?" Khan asked. Gazing past her to the man sitting as still as possible so as not to be noticed, he asked, "What should I do with you?"

McCoy quaked a little inside. "Let me go?"

Khan only smiled and turned away. "Pack up everything we are taking with us. Prepare to burn the rest," he told his people.

"So we run from the people who killed our friends?" Andrei asked accusingly.

"We find another safe place, then we deal with them," Khan returned with a soft growl. He would not tolerate a challenge to his leadership. Andrei got quiet and stepped back. The last time he and Khan fought, Khan had almost beat him to death. Looking for any lingering weakness, the Russian pondered if it was possible to take Khan now. Maybe Khan was reading his mind, or maybe it was his body language, but Khan turned to him and said, "Don't be a fool."

"The fool isn't me," Andrei replied. Moving closer so he didn't have to yell, so close that only Khan could hear him, he said, "You know she won't come to term. You know that's why she is tired. There's only one female you may be able to breed with and you've given her away."

"We are not animals," Khan responded coldly.

"We aren't human."

"Then you know it never worked with them either!" Khan hissed. "And when we die that's it. Unless we can find a way to…." Khan stopped and turned away. He couldn't talk about it anymore.

McCoy had heard enough to understand Khan's people were having serious reproductive problems. Finding Suzanne watching him, he couldn't help but think that that was why she was interested in him. It all made sense to him now. Superwoman wanted a baby and superman for whatever reason couldn't get the task done, although it sure sounded like Andrei wanted his shot at her. So the genetics that made them super soldiers also made them sterile with one another. And apparently they knew they could breed with normal women but the offspring never came to term because they killed the mothers.

"So you're killing her," McCoy interjected and immediately regretted it.

Khan turned murderous eyes to him. "You know nothing," he growled. Suzanne moved to get between him and Khan.

"Maybe there is a cure in this century," she said in hopes of defusing the blind rage she saw in his eyes.

"He knows nothing!" Khan hissed in her face.

"He doesn't," she agreed. "But maybe he can figure out how to help her. How to keep her alive."

Khan stared into her face a moment and then turned those insanely angry eyes on McCoy. There was no point in resisting, Khan had McCoy by the shoulder and dragged him back to the room where Marla was resting. "What is doing this to her?" he asked sharply and released the doctor.

McCoy sat on the edge of the bed where he could see both Marla and her crazy lover. "Marla, how do you feel?" he asked curiously.

"Just a little tired is all," she answered and sat up. "I'll be all right."

"Sure you will," McCoy agreed with a smile and did a quick cursory exam. Holding her hand he felt her pulse and found it thin and racing. Her eyes were clear and the lymph nodes in her neck were within normal limits. Looking back over his shoulder to see if Suzanne was there, he asked, "Do we still have any gloves left?"

"Yes. Let me get you a pair."

Khan stood back and watched as McCoy did a simple pelvic examination. Marla looked uncomfortable but didn't squirm too much. When the doctor withdrew his hand there was a little blood, but that was not uncommon. "Right now," he concluded, "if I were to take an educated guess, I would say she is anemic."

"What does she need?" Khan asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

"To be in a hospital," McCoy answered although he did not believe Khan would go along with the idea.

"No," Marla replied her eyes fixed on Khan. "They'll use me to catch you."

"Khan," Suzanne spoke up, "if you want her to live and hopefully have this baby, you have to let her go."

"No, please no. I'll do anything," Marla pleaded. "They'll kill you."

Khan looked at McCoy, a very ancient and primeval look on his face. "What will you do to her?"

"Save her life."

"And then?" Khan asked. "Will you lock her away? Imprison her?"

"Not while she's pregnant, but afterwards I don't know."

Khan considered it. Turning away from them he returned to his brother and men and said, "We need to leave now."

"What of your woman?" Andrei asked suspiciously.

"She stays."

"Are you sure?" Joachim asked.

"I'm sure," Khan announced. Opening the door, he looked outside for a moment and then slipped away with all that he had left of his men racing behind him. Khan was going into hiding.

Suzanne waited awhile before returning to the main room. The door was open and everyone was gone. When McCoy joined her, he thought at first it was some kind of trap.

"No, they're gone," she replied wearily.

"We need to find Jim and warn Carol."

"She's safe," Suzanne replied, "for now."

"How do you know."

Suzanne turned to look at him and said, "Because I know Khan. He will not surrender anything he loves unless he fears keeping it."


	21. Chapter 21

McCoy wasn't sure about the way to the surface and Suzanne wasn't helping. Probably giving Khan time to get away. When Marla stumbled, he picked her up and prayed it wasn't too much farther. Glancing back at Suzanne, he couldn't help but notice that she had gone all preternaturally calm and silent. Who did that remind him of?

"Were you ever going to tell me?" he asked bitterly.

"Tell you what?" she asked quietly.

"That you fucked me because you wanted to…." He stopped unable to carry it through.

"I wanted to fuck you," she replied with that odd tilt of her head. "No ulterior motives."

"I find that hard to believe," he snorted and saw an opening ahead. "I see the surface."

Suzanne moved ahead of them and came out on a side street, the hour just before dawn. It was cool and foggy and somewhere off a night bird finished the last cords of its symphony. She turned and helped McCoy get Marla, who was exhausted with fear and grief, out of the tunnel. McCoy popped his head and actually looked around to see if anyone was laying an ambush for them. Climbing out of the hole, he looked around and saw that they were at the foot of a hill with the bay open before them.

"Do you see him?"

"Who?" Suzanne asked.

"Khan! Do you see him?"

Suzanne looked around but saw no one. "He's not here."

"We need to call Starfleet and let them know where we are," McCoy reasoned aloud. "I can go look if you'll stay here with her, unless you are going to run off too."

"I am here to help you," she answered quietly. "It is why Khan did not take me."

McCoy hesitated, his eyes held by hers. A question popped into his head, but he filed it away for later use. "I'll be back," he promised and trotted back towards some promising lights. He got back just as the security vehicles arrived screaming on the scene.

Jim and Spock jumped out of the second one with Carol Marcus following. "Bones! Bones are you all right?"

"Fine, all things considered," he answered as an ambulance showed up. Meeting their eyes he said, "Khan let me go to help her."

Suzanne ignored their reunion and turned to Carol Marcus. This was the woman who murdered most of her friends in their sleep, who tried to kill her and almost killed Khan. "Dr. McCoy saved him," she spoke deliberately but without passion in her voice.

Carol almost asked why but snapped her mouth shut.

Suzanne turned back to Marla as they were putting her on the gurney for transportation. That was when she noticed the dark figure up high watching. Leaning over Marla who was still distraught, she whispered, "Follow my eyes and do nothing to give him away."

And with Marla watching her face, Suzanne cut her eyes to the left and then raised them.

Marla did as she was told and spotted his dark shape on a ledge high atop a building. He was crouched with his hands folded together in front of him. He was watching them, his men nowhere visible. Only her fear that they would attack him kept her tongue in check. She watched him as long as she could, until McCoy came to see about her, then he noticed what she was staring at. For a second he wanted to say something, alert the others to his presence, but instead he watched Khan stand up and slip away in the dying shadows of early morning. Twice that he knew of, he had saved Khan's life.

"What are you looking at?" Mr. Spock asked curiously.

McCoy worked his mouth a moment and then said, "Khan."

"Why didn't you say something?" Jim asked in an accusatory voice.

"Why? You'd have never caught him. Besides, for the time being I prefer him being alive than dead. Call it the devil you know."

"What do you mean?" Spock asked suspiciously.

"One of Khan's men makes him seem sane," McCoy answered as they readied Marla for transporting.

"When we get back, you need to tell us who they are," Jim said. "We need to know what we're up against."

"He won't do anything to risk her," McCoy explained. "He's counting on me to save her."

…

Kirk was pretty sure that Khan was no longer on planet. No one could just melt into the night and disappear that completely not with the kind of hatred Khan kept inside of him.

The all points were still up and Starfleet had not given up the search, not with the skeleton of the Vengeance still resting in San Francisco Bay.

Tried in absentia, Khan was found guilty of war crimes against the people of Starfleet and San Francisco. Deputized snipers were readied to kill him on sight should he ever appear anywhere on planet. Kirk was pretty sure Khan was hiding in the unstable humanity of Mars where in the lawless chaos there was still room to move about unnoticed.

So certain he was that Khan had to be on Mars, he and Spock took leave to go have a look. Arriving at Star Port 182, dressed in civilian attire with long coats for the cool damp weather and cowls, they moved on foot into the filthy streets of Harmonia, the largest civilian town on the planet. It spread out like a scab for a hundred miles in each direction, where a man like Khan could walk through it like an angel of death and no one would notice.

A number of times Kirk thought he saw the man watching him but realized it was just his imagination. Khan did not come out in the sunlight, he was a creature of the night when nightmares prowled the imagination. What he needed was a way to draw Khan out without risking their lives. Khan had nothing to lose, and taking out an enemy would mean nothing to him.

Finding a tavern with rooms to rent, he and Spock picked up a pair of adjoining rooms and headed down to the dining hall to get a bite to eat. Nothing fancy here, dark beer a roasted meat and starches in the form of potatoes and whatever else was cheap to import or easy to go on Mars.

After dark with the lessening of the rain, Kirk and Spock went for a stroll where the lights were brightest in ethnic neighborhoods, if you could call them that. Buying two mugs of warm beer at an outdoor vendor, Kirk gave one to Spock and the two of them continued their walk. He was certain Khan would be using an alias, although he seriously doubted it would be John Harrison.

"The possibilities are endlessly," Spock surmised.

"It'll be something that has meaning to him," Kirk replied comfortably.

"And that would be?"

"McGiver. He'll use her name."

"It would be a name that has meaning to him," Spock concurred. "But how do we find him?"

"We don't. He'll come to us." Tossing the cup into an overflowing trashcan, Kirk approached a large heavyset man in a gypsy cart with the side window open and a bright light burning inside. He looked at the trinkets that the big man was hawking and noticed a few things were military scrap. "How much is this?" he asked curiously.

"Five credits?" Kirk asked in amazement and held up the scrap casing for a starship torpedo's explosive housing.

"Take it or leave it, I don't care," the big man replied, his eyes on a monitor rebroadcasting an Australian football game.

Kirk grinned and reached into his coat and withdrew the money. Laying it on the counter, he added, "I'm looking for an old friend of mine who might be around here. His name is McGiver. Black hair, pale eyes. Creepy." The man ignored him. It wasn't wise to get involved in other peoples' business. Kirk smiled and pocketed the junk.

As he and Spock continued on their way, Spock glanced back at the man and said, "He did not acknowledge you."

"Oh yeah he did," Kirk disagreed. "If Khan is around, he will appear eventually."

"And what are you going to do when he appears," Spock asked curiously.

"I honestly don't know," Kirk answered. "But shoot on sight makes me uncomfortable."

"The sentence has been given," Spock replied.

"Yeah, I know. Everyone has been trying to kill Khan since Admiral Marcus woke him up. I just don't know."

Returning to their rooms late, Kirk opened the door to his room and stopped. "Captain," the smooth masculine voice greeted him.


	22. Chapter 22

Kirk continued into the room with an eye open for any signs of a trap. Taking off the heavy coat and hanging it up he took his time in acknowledging the blond man. He was deliberately making the man at the desk wait in hopes that the one he really wanted showed up. Giving up, he turned to his desk, he said, "You must be Joachim." Joachim opened his hands as if to say 'None other'. "It's Khan I need to see," Jim said and took a bottle of something blue out of the coat pocket. He held the bottle up and offered his guest a drink.

Joachim accepted the offered drink and replied, "My brother is not far."

Kirk poured the booze into two cups and handed one to his guest. "I have something for him," he continued and pulled a legal envelope size leather wallet out of his waistband and handed it to Joachim.

Joachim opened the wallet and took out an official looking document. He read the first few paragraphs and then flipped through the entire document in surprise. "This is a pardon?" he asked in amazement and disbelief.

"It is, which is why I need to speak to Khan. There are some major conditions, but I thought he would at least like to see this."

"Why?"

"Let's just say someone at Starfleet has seen some value in your brother's unique talent."

Joachim folded the document up and returned it to the wallet. Tossing down his drink he stood up and said, "He won't come here, but I can take you to him."

Kirk finished off his drink, took the wallet back and put his coat back on. When he opened the door, he found Spock ready to go waiting outside.

"I heard voices," the Vulcan stated tonelessly, his eyes sweeping Joachim with a critical eye. Like Khan, first impressions were deceptive.

Kirk made quick introductions. "Spock, Joachim. Joachim, Spock." Although Joachim smiled as if remembering an old joke, he said nothing.

"This way," Joachim said and led them out a back door into a dark alleyway. It was the perfect place for an ambush but none came. With the rain returning Kirk and Spock pulled their hoods up and fell in step behind Joachim who was wearing a rough weave poncho that allowed his arms free movement. A pair of nasty pistols were tucked into the rear of his belt, their butts turned outwards for a cross snatch.

Joachim's idea of a short distance was different from Kirk's. After nearly an hour of sloshing through mud for the most part with the occasional paved street, they arrived at a three-story building that included a bar on the ground floor. A blue sign flashed OPEN in a Plexiglas window but it was not an invitation so much as a warning. Dark and smoky, human and alien eyes paid only a passing interest in them when they entered the bar before turning back to their own business. It wasn't wise to butt into anyone else's business.

An acrid odor threatened their nostrils and didn't dissipate until they started up the stairs towards the second floor. Joachim paid no attention to any of it. Arriving at the third door past the stairs, he hit the door with the flat of his hand. Waiting a second of two, he opened the door and motioned for Kirk and Spock to enter ahead of him.

The one thing Kirk remembered most about Khan were his eyes, so pale and inhuman, and that preternatural stillness he could achieve, like a machine idling down. And so it was still with Khan. Sitting at a table with papers in front of him, shirtless, a monochromatic palette of color, Khan waited for Joachim to explain himself.

"Kirk has something to show you," Joachim explained.

Khan acknowledged him with a slight movement of his chin. Turning those pale eyes on Kirk, he asked, "What brings you to Mars, Captain?"

Kirk needing to establish some supremacy quickly remarked, "Marla says hello." And there it was, the momentary break in the unearthly stillness. "She's still alive, in case you are interested."

Khan clamped down on whatever stray 'human' emotion entered his brain and coldly replied, "You didn't make such a long trip to tell me that. "

Kirk pulled a chair up to the table and sat down. Spock had his back keeping an eye on what was left of Khan's crew. It would not have mattered all that much. If Khan wanted to kill both of them then and there, it would have happened. Plain and simple. Taking the wallet out of his back pocket, he set it on the table in front of Khan. "You should read this."

Khan hesitated a moment, his face reflecting uncertainty, then he reached for the wallet and opened it. Kirk watched as realization filled Khan's face with surprise and the possibility ever so slight that it was of hope. "What do I have to do?"

"I know you've only been out and about a few years," Kirk stated nonchalantly, "but maybe you've heard of the spur of Orion?"

"It was known three hundred years ago, Captain."

How was it that Khan was able to make one word sound like an obscenity?

"I did not know you had technology advanced enough for that." Kirk countered.

"What has this to do with a pardon?" Khan asked, his eyes narrowing in judgment of what Kirk would say next.

"Starfleet has learned that there is a pirate army operating in that region of space. General consensus it is once it moves, as they anticipate, it will be unstoppable."

Khan snorted in contempt and glanced away. "It would seem Admiral Marcus had the right idea but the wrong people." Kirk said nothing. Khan stood up, his back to everyone. "And what part are you playing in this little opera?" Khan asked and turned his head slightly.

"Mr. Spock and I are going with you. We break the leadership structure of the Orion spur, destroying as much as we can, and I sign off on your pardon."

"And if you get killed?"

"No pardon." Kirk replied.

"What if I am killed? Will you honor your pardon for my brother and men?"

"I will," Kirk assured him.

"And Marla?"

So the machine had a heart. "I will."

Khan looked away once more in thought. Perhaps it was just his nerves, but Kirk was certain Khan was taking forever to make up his mind, although in reality it was less than a minute. Turning back, the picture of what Kirk could only call reptilian calm, Khan said, "I agree."

"In that case, here," Kirk said and with drew a small chip from his pocket. "It's from Marla." He set it on the table and then stood up. "1300 tomorrow, Andis Field."

"Do you need me to walk you back?" Joachim asked curiously.

"I think we got it," Kirk answered and then spoke to Khan, "Don't be late or it's off."

Khan, who hadn't taken his eyes off the chip on the table, lifted them slowly to Kirk's face. "If this is a trap," he warned the Starfleet officer, "I will kill you before I die."

"It works both ways. Good night gentleman."

Khan waited for Kirk and Spock to be gone a sufficient amount of time before saying to his men, "Leave."

"Do you want us to follow them?" Andrei asked hopefully.

"No. We are going to the spur of Orion. Best get some sleep while you can."

Once alone Khan picked the chip up and pressed the small button with his thumb nail. Marla spoke. A blade ripping open his breast could not have bled him more than the pain of those three little words. When did they become so powerful over him? When did it start mattering to him?

Throwing himself on the rumpled cot that was his bed, he covered his eyes with his forearm and searched for that inner place where pain and fear…and even love….bowed down before the need to survive. Khan would survive; he had to.


	23. Chapter 23

Andis starport was little more than a space hopper hub that carried passengers up to the orbiting platforms where the larger ships were docked. Kirk stood under the outside awning waiting for Khan's arrival while Spock sat in the lobby working on his computer. A light drizzle of rain within pools of light created prisms in the puddles of oil slicked water on the street in front of him. Fearing that Khan might be having had second thoughts, Kirk glanced back through the heavy glass at Spock busy typing on whatever it was that had his interest.

When he turned back to the street he spied the five hard-faced men walking towards the terminal in their long slickers, weapons tucked under their arms or strapped to their bodies. Khan stared straight ahead but his companions kept their eyes moving restlessly on everything around them like a pack of wild hunting dogs or wolves. The man that Bones feared was psychopathically worse than Khan brought up the rear.

Stopping in front of Kirk, Khan got to the point. "Since it will be my name damned if anything goes wrong, when we are among strangers, I am in charge…alone. If you countermand anything I say, I will beat you. Please enlighten Mr. Spock."

Kirk knew better than to argue. He had already faced an abbreviated attack from Khan and certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a full-blown assault. And it made sense that there could only be one captain in the face of strangers. "Agreed," he conceded. "Let's go."

The space hopper was little more than a supped-up bug that carried a small cadre of passengers. The pilot was a local who didn't get paid until his passengers were dropped off at the orbiting terminal. Khan automatically took the first seat nearest the hatch. Kirk sat next to him. For a brief moment the two men made eye contact.

"Afraid I'll slip my leash?" Khan asked guardedly.

"No," Kirk replied easily. "Just making sure you remember I'm here."

The hopper flew with all the grace of kite in a storm, but it was forgiving enough to make the trip upstairs uneventful. From the hopper Kirk led them down the long halls of the spaceport to the loading dock of the USS Paladin.

"This is our ship." Kirk said as they neared the small space cutter that had been used in the past for rescue missions in hazardous areas. "She has been fitted for warp capacity and can get us to the frontier before we need to resupply her. We can carry up to twenty five crewmen."

"We have all we need," Khan said and boarded the ship. "We need to get rid of everything that says Starfleet," he stated thoughtfully.

"I thought we could claim it was stolen," Kirk countered.

Khan gave him a skeptical look but decided insignias were not worth fighting over…yet. The airlock opened on a passage that went to the right or left but dead-ended going forward. To the right led to the bridge.

"Acquaint yourself," Khan told his men. "Joachim, when you are ready, we will leave."

"We have a navigator and helmsman coming," Kirk told him.

"Send them away," Khan told him. "This I insist on."

Kirk watched as Khan's men took control of the bridge. "All right."

Khan moved off the bridge and headed back into the body of the ship with Kirk following. Like most Starfleet ships in mothballs, it was well used and in need of cosmetic repairs. This suited him.

The first cabin they came to was the captain's cabin. Khan looked at it and decided it didn't suit him. "You can have it," he told Kirk and kept moving. Each cabin they came to, he dismissed without too much fanfare, until he found what he was looking for, the chief engineer's cabin. Everything on the bridge passed through the overhead space and a control panel that was linked to the control panel in the engine room was waiting to be activated.

"How did you know that was here?" Kirk asked in amazement.

"I know lots of things," Khan replied indifferently and sat at the panel. Running his hand over the cold controls, he turned them on and smiled when it came to life. Only then did he take notice of the cabin. Not as big as the captain's cabin, but then he didn't need much room. The days of big and grand had been burned out of him since his awakening. But there was something he wanted. "Does this station have a customs shop?"

"You're not going to shoot anyone are you?" Kirk asked in attempt to make a joke.

"I hope not," Khan said and stood up. "There's something I want to get."

Kirk contemplated following him but stopped at the bridge. Khan's men were still familiarizing themselves with the cutter, Khan's brother even interacting with Mr. Spock on specific points of operation.

Khan was grateful that Kirk had not followed him back on to the platform. Moving purposefully through the station, looking for a custom's shop, he ignored the few who stared at him. Finding the main shop he entered and headed towards the shelves that held the liquor. There was one thing he wanted to take with him, a bottle of good bourbon. He presumed Kirk had booze stashed away, but this was something he wanted for himself.

Returning to the Paladin he stowed the bottle in a chest under his bunk before joining everyone on the bridge. "Are we ready to leave?" he asked and took the conn.

"Aye, sir," Frederick answered.

Khan gazed up at Kirk. "Coordinates, commander?" It took Kirk a moment to realize that in this game of subterfuge he was the executive officer. Withholding dispute or disapproval, he gave the coordinates to Frederick. "Commander," Khan added, "we need a duty roster so that the bridge is always manned and there are no questions about who should be here."

"Of course, sir."

Khan smiled. "Make sure you include me. I expect no one to do what I will not do myself."

"I had planned on it," Kirk replied with a grim smile of his own.

That first night they ate together in the galley, which did not have a replicator, Kirk and Spock sat on one side of the galley table while Khan's three men sat on the other. Joachim took a seat at the head of the table while Khan sat watch on the bridge.

"Isn't this cozy?" Joachim mused and stirred whatever was on his tin plate into a nice glob of food. Tasting it, he said, "Has a familiar taste but then I suppose mud would be familiar."

"It's turkey tetrazini," Kirk explained. "Freeze dried."

"Certainly something dried," Joachim agreed.

"I did not expect someone with your expertise being particular about their food," Mr. Spock spoke up.

"My expertise?" Joachim replied with a smile. "Serial killer or master henchman?"

"Serial killer," Andrei answered without the humor in his voice that Joachim carried.

"That's right. We eat dead burnt bodies and drink blood on the side. Right?" Although the statement was harsh, there was still that underlying current of humor in Joachim's voice.

Kirk couldn't help but wonder how the two brothers could be so different from one another. Khan was trapped in the dark gaol of his mind, while Joachim trolled the edges of that darkness without actually entering it. After finishing his supper and cleaning his plate, Kirk wandered forward to see what Khan was doing.

As Kirk expected Khan was busy making improvements to different panels. "Kirk," he began without actually looking at him, "if we are going to present ourselves to the warlords of the Orion spur, we need to establish a reputation for ourselves."

"All right, how do you propose to do that?" Kirk asked and dropped into the seat that he commandeered for himself.

"We need to find an acceptable target and kill it," Khan answered and only then turned towards Kirk. "Where can we find one?"

Kirk thought about it and then said, "Just before we exit Federation space, there is a no man's land that often harbors felons from the spur."

"That is where we need to go then," Khan decided and took the helm. "Coordinates please."

Kirk sat up straight and opened the navigational charts. Within minutes the Paladin was adjusting her course and headed towards a region of space known as the Tersk's Rift. The remnants of an ancient supernova made that region inhospitable at best and lethal at worst.

"According to this, we should be there in two days," Khan surmised.

"Yeah, but no guarantee we will find anything."

Khan needed a diversion and the fates provided him with one, a slaver out of Knossia. Kirk was morally obligated to investigate it, and Khan was pleased that there was finally something he could kill without repercussion. Finding that they could not outrun what they thought was an official Starfleet patrol ship, the slaver came to a full halt. In the past because of international treaties and Starfleet's limited control over non-Federation vessels, the slavers usually lost their living cargo but then went on their way.

Khan boarded the slaver first, his black attire immediately telling the slavers that the Federation was not boarding them. Still no one was foolish enough to challenge him. Kirk followed him on the ship and hurried with Mr. Spock to check on the living cargo. Khan had his men round up the rest of the slaver crew and bring them to the bridge. Six nonhuman entities, yellowish in color with cat slit eyes, raised their hands and waited for Khan to say something to them. There was an air of indifference about them, as if they were used to dealing with weak humans.

Khan didn't say anything while Andrei and Joachim went over the bridge logs and navigations. Unbeknownst to the slavers, Khan was learning a lot more about them by simply watching them. Stress would force the underlings to look to their leader for guidance, and this would be the man Khan killed.

Without actually looking at his target, he drew his weapon and shot the creature dead. This brought Kirk on the run to see what was going on.

"What happened?" he asked anxiously.

""House cleaning," Khan replied and stared into the rabbit eyes of the remaining four. One of them was so afraid he urinated on himself. Khan shot him on principle. Then with a flourish, he found the main controls of the ship and destroyed them with his weapon. All power and life support went down, but the coupling between the cutter and the slaver was intact and still open permitting Kirk and Spock to get their victims off the dead ship.

Khan paid little attention to the transfer, preferring to keep his eyes on the three survivors. After Kirk and Spock, he sent his people back to the cutter. Then alone with the three terrified beings, he laid his hand on his chest and said, "Khan." It was time for him to leave, but then he had an after thought. Turning back to the trio, he killed the one in the middle. Survivability was greater for two than three.

Striding deliberately back into the cutter, he told Frederick to blow the connection. Passing their newest passengers, who would be transported to the nearest Starfleet outpost, he did not notice or pay attention to their bird like chatter. Kirk was in charge of them, but it was obvious to them that the one they owed their new freedom to was the dark haired man in the black coat. That he ignored them was proof of his importance. Important men did not have time to waste on unimportant people.

Kirk wasn't sure how he was going to communicate with their new guests because he had never seen the likes of them before. One of them, a female of some importance if her scarlet embroidered dress was any indication laid a hand on his face and stared intently into his eyes. When she removed her hand, she said, "You are setting us free?"

"A telepath," Mr. Spock remarked curiously.

"As you say," the black eyed female responded, "a telepath. You are setting us free?"

"Yes. We are taking you to Outpost 92. We'll be there in a week's time."

"I am grateful," she responded, her demeanor calm and elegant.

"Let's get you settled," Kirk offered. There were twelve in her party and as Kirk quickly learned they had been abducted while traveling between planets in her system. She was a member of the royal family of Tazian. "Royalty, I am honored to meet you," he stated graciously. "My name is James Kirk, and this is my friend Mr. Spock."

"I am honored. My name is Gandia ," she answered and slightly inclined her head.

"My pleasure, please, this way."

Khan didn't care one way or the other that they were returning to a Federation base. He was going to stay on the cutter while Kirk played hero, plus the side trip would give the slavers time to get rescued and spread the word about who killed their companions and took their cargo.

When he had to occupy a space with Kirk's pets, he left them alone and they returned the favor. Only the one 'royal' female seemed interested in him. She never approached him outright but he feel her eyes on him whenever he was about. Finally catching him alone in the galley, she ventured near.

"You are why my people and I are free," she said with little emotion in her voice. "I wish to express my gratitude."

"That's Kirk's doing," he corrected her. Nursing a cup of coffee while working on a multifaceted hyperdrive distribution tool at the galley table, he didn't have time for any of this silliness.

"No," she corrected him. "If you had not wanted to establish a reputation, you would not have gone there. It was chance, but chance brought about by you."

Khan had been told that the woman was a telepath. Now she was quoting what she had learned from touching Kirk. "All right, you are welcome, now go away."

"May I?" she asked and held up her hand.

Khan looked at the hand then the face of the strange woman. "No," he said and got up from the table. If she wasn't going to leave him alone, then he was going to leave, Taking the tool with him, he left the strange woman standing there watching his retreating back.

McCoy had done everything he could to save her, but Marla had simply given up. An emergency C-section had saved the infant but he would have gladly traded the kid for the woman, but Marla suffering from maternal passions had refused to abort the fast growing parasite feeding on her body, and God help him that was what McCoy considered the creature in the incubator.

Only Suzanne viewed it with any kindness in her eyes. When she allowed, she held the small boy who looked full term at four months gestation. The stronger the genetic mutations, the more rapid the growth, According to the records she had once seen, her own gestation had taken six months to complete. Such rapid growth was too stressful for a normal woman, hence the use of incubation chambers. That none of them had ever been able to reproduce normally ensured that they were the first and only generation of super humans.

"Can I have him?" she asked McCoy sitting at his desk lost in thought.

He looked up at her and shook his head in amazement. "I can't give him to you," he said wearily. "Lord knows I have no interest in him…"

"Then let me have him."

"Can't. Laws."

Suzanne accepted his statement with a nod. "May I stay with him?"

McCoy didn't know what he had expected from Suzanne, but her calm attitude toward Marla's death bothered him. "Don't you care that poor woman died?"

"Will it bring her back?"

"No, of course not," McCoy answered angrily. He had tried a transfusion from Suzanne to see if that would improve Marla's health, but it had had the exact opposite effect. Instead of helping her, it had accelerated the growth of the fetus. "Don't you care?"

Suzanne tightened her mouth and glanced away for a moment. This was much to hard to manage by herself. Meeting McCoy's accusing gaze, she said, "Of course I care. I grieve that you couldn't save her, but now there is nothing more we can do for her. Khan's son needs my attention now."

McCoy suddenly snapped, "What about yourself? What are you going to do for Suzanne?"

"I don't understand," she replied warily.

"When are you going to live for yourself instead of Khan? He's not here…I am."


	24. Chapter 24

Last night I had to leave my house because of a tornado. I grabbed two things I could not live without, my lap top and my dog.

Khan's history was taken from Star Trek:Khan graphic comic, Top Secret Security Review- 31 Command, and Into Darkness novel.

Twelve hours from the Starfleet outpost, Kirk, his face sporting a week's growth of face hair, was on the bridge with Antoni and Andrei when he discovered a message awaiting the Paladin from Dr. McCoy. Thinking nothing of it, he accepted the transmission and ran it over the speakers. Hearing the contents, he immediately regretted doing it.

Andrei, his pale eyes gleaming, glanced back at Kirk and said, "I told that son of a bitch that would happen."

"No chance I can get you to ignore that?" Kirk asked somewhat apprehensively.

"Why?" Andrei asked with false concern. "It is not like we all haven't felt this loss. Our creators made certain of that. "

Kirk really didn't want to get into a discussion with Andrei on the ethics behind the creation of the super warriors, but it was evident the man was going to milk the knowledge for all he could get. "You think you could keep from gloating too much?" Kirk asked, pretty sure that was impossible.

Khan entering the bridge with blue prints in hand of an enhancement he wanted to apply to the cutter to make it faster looked straight at Andrei and asked, "Why are you gloating." Glancing at Kirk who looked worried, he stopped and asked, "What is going on?"

If Andrei had had any sense, he would have kept his mouth shut, but some people are given so much leeway that they forget their freedom is a gift and not a right. Wearing the cruelest smile imaginable, he said, "Your woman is dead." Khan eyes narrowed dangerously. Andrei should have stopped while he still had a chance. "But you knew that was going to happen."

" Bones saved the boy," Kirk interjected in hopes of diverting what looked to be an epic meltdown in its early stages.

"Don't look so upset," Andrei taunted Khan. "I told you it would happen. The creators made sure there would be no more of us. Not even the medicine of this century can undo what they did to us. You were a fool for thinking otherwise."

Andrei looked away from Khan, his first mistake. Khan would not be mocked. "You take too much pleasure in my misery," he remarked quietly although his heart was breaking. He moved behind Andrei. Letting Khan block his escape was Andrei's second mistake. Realizing too late that he had poked the hornet's nest one time too many was his third mistake. Gazing up he saw a look in Khan's eyes that no one wanted to see. Rising from the chair and hesitating was his fatal mistake.

Kirk stared in horror as Khan's hand moved faster than any he had ever seen, and with a savage yank he made sure Andrei's dying eyes saw the bloody flesh in his right hand. Khan had literally ripped Andrei's heart out of his chest and stood there watching the man die. Once he was certain Andrei was dead, he turned on his heels and dropped the heart on the deck before stalking off the bridge past Kirk's pets to lock himself in his cabin.

His mind was having a hard time wrapping itself around the fact Marla was dead. Finding the little chip, he played the last words he would ever hear from her and held the device to his forehead. Unable to control the rage and pain that battle for control of his body, he sat on his bunk and tried to blot out all the voices that yelled and screamed at him, that pleaded for their lives when he could not grant it. He wanted it to end, for the voices to stop pleading with him.

Digging into his trunk beneath the bunk he took out the bottle of bourbon and opened it. Putting the bottle to his lips, craving oblivion, he drank long and deep. He didn't want to feel anything for a little while, just a few hours if possible. Too late he realized that he still had Andrei's blood on his hand. Blood and bourbon, how appropriate.

The cabin buzzer sounded.

Enraged by this intrusion on his misery, he jumped up and opened the hatch. Gandia stared up at him with quiet passive eyes. He couldn't believe it! Was she insane? "Do you still want to touch me?" he asked incredulously. "Are you stupid?" Feeling himself slipping into the madness of rage and pain, he snarled, "All right then!" He grabbed her slender wrist but it was he who staggered under her psychic energy when it slammed into him in icy waves. It was so cold he couldn't breathe and gasped for air; unable to stand he dropped to one knee and stared up at the small woman with the quiet eyes with fear in his own.

Folding her hand over his bloody one, she said, "Come, let us sit."

Kirk, seeing Lady Gandia entering Khan's cabin and fearing for her safety ran after her. But when he got to the open hatch it was Khan being gently controlled by her. "What are you?" the stunned warrior asked in awe.

"I am a healer," she replied and sat on the bunk beside him. "That is why I was captured."

"Why?" Khan muttered quietly, as the woman's energy flowed softly through him.

"When I came on this ship, I felt your anger like a white hot fire burning itself out so brilliantly and with such heat that I knew you could not last long. You saved me; I want to save you."

"How?" he moaned in his misery.

"Like this," she replied gently and looked into both his heart and mind.

Kirk stood in the hatchway as Gandia and Khan's conversation internalized, the small woman clearly in control of the tall dangerous man. She found the earliest memories of his awakening in this lifetime and pieced together what Admiral Marcus had done to him. How the admiral had changed his appearance and erased his memory to create the man named John Harrison. How he had been used as a covert agent against the Klingons, even being used to test a new explosive devise on their inhabited moon Praxis. The explosion had torn the moon in half, almost trapping him when the crust shifted beneath his boots, but with the moon's surface shuddering in the turmoil his memory returned. Rage surged up from the pit of his stomach as he remembered the shock of remembering who he was.

Gandia wrapped her soothing powers around his heart. The anger gave way to grief that she quieted in his mind. Outwardly she was just sitting there, his bloody hand holding her left wrist, her right hand resting on top of his bloody one. The internal conversation continued, and Gandia saw Khan humbling, humiliating himself, on his knees begging Marcus to wake his people. He would subject himself to anything Marcus wanted if he would just wake them. Marcus lied repeatedly to him, promising one day, but that day never came. The shame was choking Khan. He was a warrior, and to be groveling before Marcus was the mark of how desperate he was to be reunited with his people. She calmed the anger that tainted every memory and the shame of being subjugated to Marcus.

Kirk could not tear himself away and sat on the deck to watch. What was going on inside Khan's head? And where was he in this angry drama of the mind?

After being on Qo'noS several times while reconnoitering for his Praxis attack, Khan had naturally fled there to escape Marcus, but the Enterprise had followed him. So many memories to heal, but nothing was as terrible as what she found lurking in his the darkest place in his mind, a guilt that threatened to destroy him. Khan was grateful he didn't have to look after his people anymore, that that part of his life was over, and he hated himself for surviving. He would have died with them, but the will to survive was too great. They were screaming in his head, inflicting wounds on his psyche that would never heal.

And now this new grief and uncertainty, wrapped in a cloak of self hatred threatened to choke the life out him. Killing Andrei had felt so good, but it was himself that he was killing, ripping the heart out of. Gandia took him into the grieving process for this new loss and uncertainty. She let him be angry and then hurt, she let the tears fall unheeded, until he whispered, "I'm tired."

"Then sleep," she said and caressed his face from forehead to chin, and his body sagged against her. Turning to Kirk, who was pushing himself to his feet, she said, "Help me."

Kirk stretched Khan out full length on his bunk. Corking the bourbon, he placed the bottle on the lamp table beside him. "Is he going to be all right?"

"Who can say?" she replied thoughtfully. "There is both nobility and cruelty in his mind. Self preservation motivates him more than anything. Perhaps he is less dangerous now, or maybe more so, I can not say."

"What can I do?"

"Don't betray him anymore," she answered. "It made him not trust you, and it made him angry."

Kirk frowned. He had hoped Khan had forgotten that part of their history. "If it's any consolation. He beat the shit out of me."

"I know," she answered and walked away.

The Paladin arrived at the Starfleet outpost before the next cycle was over and their passengers dropped off for repatriation to their homeworld. Kirk and Spock took it upon themselves to top of their supplies and get Khan the equipment he desired to further improve the cutter.

Since there was no big hurry, they decided to stay long enough to have a meal of real food in the café just off the installation. They did not expect to see Khan strolling almost nonchalantly through the market looking for them.

"Lost?" Kirk asked curiously.

"I have a favor to ask of you," Khan answered with a note of hesitancy in his voice.

"Ask."

"Can you send a message to Dr. McCoy and ask him what they are going to do with my son. Will he be safe until I can collect him?"

The request startled Kirk. "Sure, of course," he agreed.

"Also if he has a name, I would appreciate knowing it." Khan hated begging, it galled his very being, but he had to trust Kirk a little if for the only reason that he had no other choice.

Once more Kirk could only look bewildered and say, "Sure."

"Thank-you." It was as heartfelt as Khan could muster. Like Mr. Spock, he had noticed the two men staring intently at him. Bounty hunters. "Remind me to ask you who it is that is granting this pardon," Khan said thoughtfully, his eyes on Kirk while his other senses were on the men pondering their survivability chances if they took on Khan with Kirk and Spock.

Fools tend to be braver in pairs, and in another time Khan would have simply killed them for daring to threaten him. Now because of Kirk, he had to wait to retaliate. In a show of unconcern, Kirk, Spock and Khan stood and turned and faced the two men to let them know their intentions were not hidden. How brave they were when facing their prey. Not so much.

Khan walked off with Spock close behind him. Kirk waited long enough to make sure the bounty hunters didn't suddenly get their nerve. Smiling he shot them with his finger. Time to go.


	25. Chapter 25

Give Khan something to do and he was happy. In this case he was completely modifying the cutter to be faster at warp and impulse, with future projects that included stronger shields and a better navigational system. With as much time as he spent in the cutter's engineering department, Kirk would have thought he would have been working to control the oppressive humidity that coated everything. Wearing only canvas shoes and shorts, he crouched on a railing with a fine tuning tool in his hands. He could have been sabotaging the warp drive for all Kirk knew, but no one wanted to spend enough time in the department to check it out and see.

"Khan!" he called up to him. "We need to have a meeting." Khan glanced down at him, did another turn on the tool, and then set it down and lightly swung off the railing. For a moment Kirk could not help but admire the other man's simple grace. Whoever had designed him had put a lot of thought into it. And he immediately chastised himself for not seeing Khan as human….a highly modified, genetically enhanced human with the ability to raise the dead.

Since the galley was the only place where they could all gather without sitting on top of each other, that was the designated gathering place. Joachim, who was proving to be quite the talented chef, had created a working coffee maker where coffee or tea could be brewed in less than a minute if so desired. Even Spock who preferred tea to coffee, indulged in a cup of the stimulating beverage. Antoni automatically passed cups to Kirk and Khan.

"All right," Kirk said and sat at the table, "we've got everything we need now. Last transmission was from Starfleet an hour ago. But first, you asked me what you son was named. If I'm saying this right, Lahina."

Khan smiled, pleased that his son bore the name of a great Sikh warrior from a time older than his own. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," Kirk said, actually pleased that he could put a temporary smile on that hard face. "Now here's what is going on. The prime minister is behind this operation at the behest of an ally."

"Do we know the ally?" Spock asked curiously.

"Didn't say, but I know we are going after the Endowi Cartel."

Khan, leaning against the counter top, spoke up, "The prime minister's daughter died of a drug overdose six months ago, a new poison they call Deadly Nightshade." Joachim looked back at his brother. Khan allowed a thin smile. "It was in the news."

"How do you know it was affiliated with the Endowi Cartel?" Joachim asked curiously.

Kirk waited a moment to see if Khan wanted to tell him or not. When Khan did not respond, he said, "Deadly Nightshade is coming through the spur of Orion from parts we have no influence over, an area controlled by the Endowi Cartel. Since it first appeared on Earth, there have been many deaths associated with it among the nonhuman population. It's beginning to turn up in the human population more frequently."

"Break up one cartel and another will replace it," Khan informed them almost indifferently. If they wanted him to go kill someone for a pardon, he was all for it, but they needed to know that rats would always be there.

"We'll worry about that when we come to it. Right now we are going to a planet named Hypasian, where we will meet a contact."

"A contact who knows we are en route?" Khan asked curiously and arched a dark brow almost reminiscent of Spock. "If one knows we are on the way, others know it too."

"Who is our contact?" Spock asked.

"Someone named Hadoojn," Kirk replied and checked his hand monitor. "I don't know the race personally, but it says he's a Nodolian."

"A nonhuman species," Khan added. He had met one briefly on Io. "They resemble us physically but have more of a blue reptilian skin, although finer. Boot leather quality, I would say."

Kirk's mouth dropped open as he stared at the man in dismay. "Resist the urge to make yourself a pair, please," he admonished Khan before adding, "and I was berating myself earlier for thinking you weren't human." Khan had no reply for him, but his eyes did slide into that realm where they were indeed less human.

After the meeting Khan returned to his cabin and got into his trunk for the one thing of value he kept, a 1935 Persian Luger that he had liberated from a collector before fleeing to Mars. The way it nestled in the palm of his hand was almost sensuous, and the extinct Farsi script on the first toggle link proved its antiquity. Holding the barrel to his face where the cool metal excited a place in his mind that no enemy wanted touched, he smiled. This was a weapon that belonged in another time when men looked each other in the eye in their battles to the death. Taking a cleaning rag out of the trunk he disassembled the piece, made sure it was spotless before putting it back together. Smiling at something he remembered from another time, he recalled that military men never called their weapons guns, not the ones who lived or died by their weapons. True marksmen called their weapons pieces or weapons…guns were their name for cocks, although one had to admit a weapon was the ultimate phallic symbol. His first kill at eighteen had gotten him a Persian Luger, taken from an Iranian shouting Allah Akbar. It had been necessary, kill or be killed, but the act had awakened a place in his brain that had been dormant until then. Khan had discovered he liked killing. When he was initiated into the finer arts of the flesh by a woman ten years older than he, he often couldn't decide which he liked more.

Thinking back on that Iranian, Khan cynically wondered if he had gotten through all those virgins by now? He personally didn't care for virgins, although he had initiated a few young women in his time as was the custom of some rulers. Still he preferred an experienced woman, unless there was a chance he could kill someone. Death always before sex.

Taking the leather shoulder holster out of the trunk, he made sure it was clean and supple. Slipping it over his bare shoulders, he closed his eyes and smiled. IF the rest of his life however long that was going to be, was going to be about death, then he would embrace it like a lover. For a moment something inside of him hesitated, something that told him this did not have to be, but he forced it aside; in the long run perhaps it was better that his son never knew him.

When the cutter arrived at Hypasian, they found a Class L planet with strips of advanced technological areas encircling it like a spider's web. Outside of the technological areas the world was warm and relatively arid with great forests of spore bearing plants. The oceans were inhabited by animals that had not been seen on Earth in millions of years. It was not a place where anyone wanted to find themselves lost and alone.

Locating their contact at a place in the northern hemisphere on the coast, Joachim and Spock listened to communiqués and ran them through a universal translator. Once they were confident they could speak to those in charge of the space port, they raised the surface and requested landing instructions.

"Beach weather," Joachim remarked with an eye towards his brother. Khan liked the dark coats to hide their weapons under, but they would stand out all the more if they tried to pull that off.

"Then we wait for night fall," Khan decided.


	26. Chapter 26

Joachim and Kirk, bored with waiting, dressed appropriately and took off to find their contact, or at least where he or she was dwelling along that technical strip of land. It didn't take them long to realize that this was not a normal planet…or at least this strip was not what one would call normal.

"What kind of place is this?" Joachim asked, his expression both confused and curious.

"I would say it's a pleasure planet," Kirk answered, just as befuddled as his companion. There were beings from every civilization imaginable, and if what he was seeing was correct, a place where every perversion imaginable could be indulged in to ones heart's content. "I suppose it would make sense that drugs passed through here," he reasoned aloud.

"Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll," Joachim muttered to himself.

"Pardon?"

"Just an expression from our time," Joachim explained, pretty sure that young Capt. Kirk had no idea what rock n' roll was. "It was a type of music that doesn't translate well to this time period."

"I like old things, maybe I'll look it up," Kirk decided as he and Joachim continued down the street of earthy sins. "Anything in particular?"

Joachim grinned and scratched his golden head. "Let me think. Although they were on their way out when we came along, I was always fond of Iron Maiden. Look them up."

"Will do. What did Khan like?"

"Khan tolerated most music, but he liked the old masters, Beethoven, Bach, the Russians." Joachim cut his eyes to the side and said, "Fishing, captain?"

"Trying to understand how you two are so different," Kirk answered readily as a pair of extremely lovely humanoid females passed them. Both men gave the dark haired beauties passing glances. "See, I don't see your brother ever doing that," Kirk chuckled

Joachim's face grew solemn. "I was allowed to be young. Khan never had a say in what they did to him, not until he broke free and took us with him." Seeing the frown on Kirk's face, he asked, "You don't think he was born knowing how to fight do you? Someone taught him to kill when he was sixteen. They found out about the healing properties of his blood when he was not much older and it created something of a confusion in the masters. Fight him or use him. Ultimately they tried to do both."

"No wonder he's not a pleasant man," Kirk conceded.

"The only thing that kept them from doing worse to him was his sense of self preservation. You can't force yourself on someone who will defend himself to the death. Khan killed one potential rapist when he was seventeen. They left him along after that."

Kirk could see how that would upset Khan, and it would explain why he looked down on humanity with so much hate in his heart. "So that's why he dislikes people?"

"It was people who created us, who experimented with our DNA and body functions, but then they tried to control and use us. They taught us to hate others of their kind, plus the attacks against us by our own creators."

"How did you escape that hate?"

"I discovered rock n roll," Joachim answered with a smile. "And I fell in love with Stevie Nicks and Lita Ford."

"Who?"

"Some women who sang rock n roll."

"Remind me to look them up."

"I will," Joachim said with a friendly grin on his handsome face. The grin fell away when he stopped in front of one interesting pleasure palace. "In your information, what was the name of the place where we were supposed to go?"

Kirk looked up at the running lights over the building that stretched back from the street at least a couple of kilometers and then at the name on the paper he carried in his pocket. "I think we found it." He wasn't going to try pronouncing the name on the sheet. "Shall we go inside?"

"No," Joachim answered without hesitation. "We enter together with Khan."

"No reconnoitering?" He had always been taught advanced investigations made it easier for the main party.

"We are few in numbers. If we get captured, we create difficulties for the others," Joachim replied as if quoting from memory.

"They are supposed to be our allies."

"Until proven otherwise we must consider the possibility that they are not."

Kirk stared at Joachim until the man turned and looked at him. "Everyone is an enemy?" he asked in disbelief and amazement.

Joachim smiled. "Not everyone. I've been told I can trust you not to murder us."

Kirk did not find that amusing. "Khan sees Spock and me still as enemies?"

"He knows where you can be trusted and where you can not," Joachim answered once more without hesitation. "I know he asked for your help and it killed him to ask. Your kind has taken great pleasure in hurting him, showing how superior you are to him. And yet you justify it by recalling all the harm he caused counter attacking you. Khan knows you would rather see him dead than successful."

"That's not true!" Kirk protested. "I wanted him brought to justice, but not murdered."

"Your woman killed our people."

Kirk stared at the man in stunned silence. "My woman?" he mouthed in disbelief. "Where did you get that?"

"Did you not shoot Khan with a drug that Carol Marcus gave to you?"

"Yes," Kirk answered and tried to think back on that night. So much had been happening that he wasn't certain what was going on.

"The same diseases she administered to our friends….to my wife," Joachim added with a hint of pain in his voice.

Kirk tried to find justification for Carol's actions, or better yet a doubt that someone else had done the horrors against Khan's crew. He desperately wanted to believe some unknown entity had poisoned them in their sleep. "And he thinks I am protecting her?"

"Aren't you?"

"Yes, but from Khan's brand of justice, not justice."

Joachim ended the discussion with a bob of his head. Turning away from their destination, he led Kirk back through the crowded streets to the starport where the cutter waited. Khan met them at the hatch, his expression intense as he met his brother's gaze.

"We found it," Joachim said as Khan stepped back and permitted entrance.

Under the cover of darkness leaving Frederick behind to watch the cutter, Khan and Kirk led the others back down the brilliantly lit streets to the pleasure palace where they were to meet. This time Kirk carried his weapons under a coat along side Khan who was even more heavily armed. Spock, Joachim and Antoni paced along behind them, their eyes taking in everything around them. Night brought out the worst of any civilization's humanity. Drugs that numbed the brain, sex with anything or one you could possibly want, arms deals were carried out in the open, and death was no stranger to the streets. Khan ignored it all as Kirk led him towards their destination, but Kirk could not get some of the images out of his mind. They were selling children for sex on one corner, and it was all he could do to keep walking. This was wrong! He wanted to stop and rescue them.

"We can't save them," Khan growled softly and kept walking.

"Don't you have a shred of compassion in you?" Kirk shot back. "It's all right if you think the adults are your enemies, but those are children!"

Khan stopped and met Kirk's desperate gaze. "What would you have me do? What would we do with them?"

"I don't know, I haven't thought it through."

"Good intentions with no plan can be worse than just leaving them," Khan replied and turned away. "We need to go."

Kirk reluctantly joined Khan, although he just couldn't imagine leaving the kids to predators who defiled their innocence. That was until he saw another group of children being offered for sale. Every vice or sin was for sale here. Angry at Khan for not caring, he growled, "I bet we will even find something that will get your rocks off."

"Possibly," Khan agreed in his dragon voice. "Until I do, I plan on staying focused on what we need to do."

Arriving at their destination, he stopped and looked up at the flashing sign. In that running light all their faces looked demonic but none more so than Khan who was deep in the darkness that permitted his survival under the worst conditions. What humanity that lived within his heart had been slowly peeled away on the walk from the starport. No one in here was to be trusted. Reaching under his left arm, he made sure the luger slipped freely into his hand. The other men followed suit. No one wanted to be caught unarmed if things went south.

Khan entered the palace first and was besieged by the offerings of every vice imaginable from every race imaginable. He ignored them as he moved deeper into the building. Kirk stayed at his right but gave him enough space to have free use of his arm. They stopped at the intersection of two great halls. Joachim stopped someone who appeared to be an employee and said, "Hajoojn."

The creature, not quite human and impossible to tell if male or female, looked them over carefully, took note of Spock's ears and Khan's cold eyes and then turned away. "Follow it?" Kirk asked.

"Yes," Khan answered.

The entity named Hajoojn, whose skin did remind Kirk of fine boot leather…damn Khan for putting that thought in his head….was holding court in a hall of loud noise, strong odors and everything else you could imagine. The Nodolian lifted gold reptilian eyes at the men easing towards him. He, and this was a supposition on Kirk's part, listened as the being Joachim had stopped whispered into his ear. With a wave of his hands he sent those sitting with him away. A plate of food, if you could call it that, was set before him.

"Be seated, gentlemen," the Nodolian spoke in a voice hampered by a long slender tongue that was not completely conducive to human speech. "Snack?" He offered them what was in the platter. Kirk looked at the squirming mass and declined as did everyone else, except Khan. He reached into the platter, took palm full of whatever that was and swallowed it whole.

Kirk reluctantly reached into the platter, took one 'bug' out and swallowed it. As long as he didn't think about it, he was all right. "Tastes like pop corn," he lied, wishing he had something to wash it down with. When drinks were offered, he found them infinitely more palatable. Only Khan refrained from drinking.

"You are our contact?" Khan asked curiously and helped himself to another bug, surprising the Nodolian with his willingness to dine on something experience told him humans could not tolerate. Kirk debated trying another bug and decided against it. If Khan wanted to be the bad dog on this hunt, well Kirk was not going to challenge him.

"I am but we can not do anything right now as I am being watched."

"By whom?" Kirk asked.

"There are many different bad men on Hypasian," Hajooin answered. "These are interested in something else, and I must meet with them. Please stay as my guests for the night, partake of what I have to offer you."

Kirk was surprised when Khan accepted the offer. Of course for safety's sake he insisted on them sharing two rooms. Spock got to decide if he wanted to bunk with Khan and Kirk or Joachim and Antoni. Spock decided he would rather stay with Kirk and Khan.

Once they were shown to their rooms, Khan told his men to be careful and not wander off. He advised the same for Kirk and Spock. "Where are you going?" Kirk asked suspiciously.

Khan hesitated a moment and then said, "To get my rocks off."

Kirk frowned but decided it was unwise to ask more. Khan returned to the street where the children had been sold. Finding the first trader alone in his building, Khan slit his throat before he was even aware that Khan was there. The same thing happened to the second vendor. Khan couldn't protect the children, but he could damn well make sure that these creatures profited no more from their crimes.

When he returned to the room he shared, he washed the blood off his hands, knife and leather coat. Lying down on the bed they decided was his, he stared at the ceiling with grim satisfaction in his mind.


	27. Chapter 27

Sometimes in his dreams he could still hear the tanks, the black and gray 'night' tanks they drove over the mountain pass to get behind the enemy before all hell turned loose.

The Battle of Taxila was called the first true modern war in that part of Central Asia. The two sides were determined to exterminate the other, not just win but destroy the other. And it almost caught the West completely off guard. Neither the CIA or MI-5 or any of the other modern government agencies had paid any attention to the twenty-six year whose sudden arrival on the world stage shook things up as no one had done since Alexander the press said. The press bored with Hollywood actors and royals, found a dangerous new obsession…and his name was Khan.

What had the military establishment in turmoil were the ubernodified M1A2 that he drove over the mountain passes to get behind the Pakistanis.

Driving the tanks through the mountains had been easy. Keeping the damn things quiet had been hard.

"How do we keep a tank quiet?" Joachim asked as they readied to sneak off in the night with the six black and gray painted Abrams.

"We don't," Khan replied as he mounted the lead tank, "but we sure as hell don't have to go screaming everywhere."

Joachim grinned; Khan was still pissed off with him about the race with the T-80. "But I won." Joachim laughed as his wife brought him a quick bite to eat, and to steal a kiss. They were so young, so sure the fates were on their side. The kiss was not a good-bye nor was there even the hint of fear or uncertainty in it. Sabra's kiss was life and burned his lips and said she would be waiting his return, Victorious. Other lovers hurried to kiss their men good-bye for the end run about the waiting army.

No one moved to kiss Khan good-bye; he had not had the time to make any gentle connections. His world was always a game of chess where one careless moment meant death and the end of his dream. Always he said he would pay more attention to gentler arts when the fighting was finished.

The ones seeing him off were the old men from the military who saw this as their chance to avenge a thousand plus years of shame. Within their group were Westerners unsure of this brash young Alexander, whose existence was puzzlement to them.

The six tanks painted in night camouflage, roared to life and with jerks that didn't betray their advanced modifications moved off to the north. The quicker they got into rough terrain the safer they would be, but hitting those unforgiving mountains, not the highest in the world by any stretch of the imagination, slowed their progress northwards down to a crawl. There were places where not even agile goats dared to cross, but Khan stayed in touch with his driver Gunter and crossed them. All the others had to follow him.

Joachim, guiding the second tank behind his brother, was often times awed by the trail he was forging in the dry desert mountains. Khan had no fear whatsoever. All he needed was Gunter doing precisely what he told him to do, and Gunter never let him down. The mad German swore in another life he had been with Rommel in North Africa and had died at El Alamin. Khan always claimed that was not a good reference.

When the trail vanished or crawled in a direction that Khan did not want to go, he made his own trail. There was no time to waste, as they needed to be in place when light came. That was when the Army of Liberation began its main assault on the troops gathered at Taxila. Not needing to sleep helped. Few knew for certain that Khan and his intimate followers were not truly human, that the very man they were hailing as Alexander reincarnated had performed all those mysterious assassinations in the night a little more than three years earlier.

When light came and the final assault began, the six black tanks unleashed hell on their enemies. Always moving forward, they decimated the left rear flank, turning it back in on the middle as the Pakistanis tried to get away. Sometimes a bullet would whiz by so close to Khan, he could feel its heat against his skin, and twice someone got lucky, or so they thought. Even with Kevlar over their black shirts to protect them, Khan was hit twice, once a grazing blow across his forehead and the second where the left shoulder joint connected with his body. Still he made no attempt to withdraw from the fight or to at least get lower in the tank.

Joachim could see his brother's bloody face and the sheer ecstasy emblazoned on it as he took out one enemy after another with the M2 .50 caliber. They had taught Khan well. By noon the Pakistanis retired in turmoil fleeing back towards Islamabad. Following the Spartan rules of engagement of not pursuing just yet, Khan roared into the ruins of Taxila and claimed them for himself.

There was blind ecstasy in Khan's ranks and the celebration started the moment the watch was set. Khan would not deny them their victory rites. A hundred lambs were slaughtered for the victory feast, and music loud and joyous rang over the ancient site.

Lost in his own council, Khan did not hurry to tend to his wounds; they were little more than annoyances to him anyway. Plucking a mango out of a wooden tray, he bit into it and enjoyed the sweet soft pulp. He had not eaten in two days and was only now noticing it.

Returning to his tank, he unrolled a blanket and sat on it to finally tend to his wounds. His forehead simply looked bad and liked to bleed, but the bullet wound beside his left nipple was a little more serious than he first imagined. The bullet was still there a half inch under the skin, but this would not be the first time he removed a slug from his body; pain was something he could control. Removing the black shirt that was shiny from dried blood, he rolled it up and tossed it aside.

Suzanne suddenly appeared at his side, her eyes burning with the passion of life. "Let me," she said and took the forceps from him. It didn't really hurt when she pulled the wound open with her fingers and inserted the tool, but it bled freely, and he could see it excited her.

Anya the red haired Irish girl in jungle greens appeared next with a wet rag and dabbed his forehead. He could literally smell her heat as she cleaned his face. She kissed him first, desperately, passionately, his blood still damp on his face smearing across hers. She bit at his lower lip and speared with his tongue for domination in his mouth. This was not about love, or even sex, it was about life. It was primitive and pagan. The women were conquering him as he had conquered their enemy.

Suzanne kissed his neck and throat, tasted the hard salt on his skin and ran her hand down his blood slick body. She found the buckle to his belt and unhooked it. There was no tenderness, no promises or lies, just the raw animal lust. Suzanne only needed to free one leg from the military style boots to mount him and lean forward. He shuddered and moaned when Anya kneaded his chest and bent over him to lick his nipples.

He was the prize, and they would have him. And when they were finished, he had been thoroughly fucked. No promises of love or undying devotion, just simple animal pleasure. Little did they know that they had planted the first seeds in his mind of what it meant to be the war leader. What he had to do to earn this reward.

Khan heard the tanks in the distance just before he awakened. Raising his head from the pillow, it took him a moment to get his bearings. Kirk and Spock. He was in hell.

"Where did you go last night" Kirk asked suspiciously. He had found Khan's coat hanging in the restroom with blood on it. It was obvious the man had tried to clean it off, but he had missed a few places.

"I took care of your problem for you," Khan answered and sat up. Shoving his hair out of his eyes, he asked, "Is there any hot water?"

"What did you do?" Kirk asked, even more alarmed now. The last thing they needed was Khan slipping around in the dark doing a jack the ripper impersonation.

"I went back to the slavers and slit their throats," Khan said and got up. "Any more questions, Captain, or can I go pee?"

"Did anyone see you?" Kirk asked, relieved that Khan had taken out people who needed taking out and not some….well that was his thought.

"It's possible but not intentional," Khan said and closed the restroom door behind him. He needed to go back to the cutter and make sure Frederick was all right. Kirk and the others could stay here and wait for their information. He would come back as quickly as he was certain everything was acceptable.


	28. Chapter 28

Khan didn't actually tell anyone he was going back to the cutter; he simply grabbed his coat and headed out on his own. It was early morning, and while there was not as much activity as there had been the night before, there was still a lot going on. A strange mix of aromas, cooking food and ocean breezes, attacked his senses. He would have preferred the clean ocean air and not this strange mix of food, fuel and no telling what else, but no one had asked him, all the pity.

As he walked back the way he had come, passing the two businesses his knife had closed, he glimpsed the ocean between the buildings. He knew it was an alien sea at its worst, but it reminded him of one he had visited a long time ago, a pleasant thought that came rarely these days.

Letting his defenses down for an instant he noticed too late the man intent upon him, and even though none were faster than he at reflexive gut reactions, this man was already ready. "Move one hair towards your weapons, and I will kill you where you stand, commander," the man stated with a finality, his use of the word commander telling Khan a lot. How many people knew he had once been Cdr. John Harrison? "Hands on head," the man said grimly, "and anything fancy…I will shoot. On your knees."

Khan stared at the man and tried to remember his face. Telling him to get on his knees was one sure way to control him, which meant this fellow had to know something about managing prisoners. Deciding that if this was to be his last day breathing, it wouldn't really matter one way or another if he knew the man's name, ergo he kept quiet. At least the man in the tattered civilian clothes knew enough about him to not get too close. But Khan's silence and lack of fear only infuriated him.

"Don't you want to know who's going to stop you once and for all?" the man demanded angrily. He was almost beside himself with emotion.

Not really, but if it prolonged the inevitable only a second, so be it. Besides the man was bound to slip up, the longer he waited to take out his target. Keeping his voice deadly calm, Khan replied, "Very well, who are you?"

Kirk told the others to wait in the casino, while he went looking for Khan. Joachim wanted to come along, but Kirk insisted that if they all wandered off, they might lose their contact. Joachim reluctantly agreed if Spock would try his hand at poker. He was certain the cagey Vulcan was a latent card shark. So with no reason to expect any trouble, Kirk went off in search of Khan. Passing both slave merchants, he was a wee bit concerned that Khan had painted the doors of their offices with blood. He had not realized that Khan had this talent for the dramatic.

Passing one outdoor proprietor of questionable food, Kirk stopped suddenly. Someone had recognized Khan and had him on his knees with his hands on his head. Was the man an idiot? Didn't he know Khan was as under control as a cobra on the loose? Khan for his part was not doing anything to agitate the situation. Drawing his own weapon, Kirk carefully approached the two men.

"Hey buddy, drop it!" he shouted. The man jerked his head around in surprise, his face reflecting it. Khan moved. "Don't kill him!" Kirk shouted and ran forward to prevent the inevitable. "Don't kill him!"

Khan was more than capable of doing incredible damage without killing. His would be executioner was on the receiving end of a body slam that knocked the breath out of him and probably cracked a couple of ribs. Khan snatched up his weapon and stood over him with a look of pure contempt on his face. "If you are going to kill someone, you get on with it. Talk is for fools," Khan chastised him.

"Maybe that's not good advice," Kirk countered as he put up his own weapon. "What happened here?"

"Lt. Dante, Capt. Kirk, Capt. Kirk Lt. Dante," Khan responded drolly. "His brother was head librarian at the Kelvin Library for the criminally insane."

"Huh?" Kirk answered. Gazing down at the writhing man who was still in a lot of pain, he asked, "Who are you?"

"Oh for Christ's sake, I didn't hurt you that bad," Khan retorted contemptuously and pulled Dante to his feet. Dante whimpered as he found himself on his feet with sharp pain shooting through his back. "Answer the captain."

Dante hunched over, looked at Kirk and said, "Lt. Felix Dante. My brother was a technician at Section 31. This bastard killed him."

"Yes, very tragic," Khan snorted and extended his own weapon. "Can I shoot him now, Captain?"

Kirk wasn't sure if Khan was joking, or if Khan even knew how to joke. "No, you can't shoot him."

"Lucky you," Khan growled and holstered his piece. "I'm going to check on Frederick," he said and continued on his way, leaving Kirk to deal with the would be hero.

By the time Kirk reached the cutter, Khan was sitting in the galley in a white T shirt working on something in his hands. "Where's Frederick?" Kirk asked curiously.

"I sent him out to get himself some fresh air and food," Khan answered without looking up.

"Well, I don't think we'll have anymore problems with Mr. Dante," Kirk said and checked to see if the coffee was hot. Pouring himself a cup, he glanced back covertly and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Khan asked as he removed one small delicate screw and set it on the galley table.

"You let a rookie get the jump on you," Kirk answered and leaned against the counter to nurse his cup.

"Must be human then," Khan replied indifferently. "Is this really what you want to discuss, captain?"

"I don't want you to get suicidal," Kirk retorted. "Gandia said you would be either better or worse. I can't decide the turn you're taking."

Khan hated prying, hated it almost as much as he hated remembering the past. Looking up, hoping his face conveyed his meaning, he said, "Captain, I am not a touchy feely person. If I need your assistance, I know how to ask."

Kirk had never heard that phrase before but he was pretty sure he understood it. "You know not everyone is out to get you," he countered.

"Really?" Khan mocked him. "Who would that be?"

"Can we call a truce on this bull shit?" Kirk retorted with a rise of anger in his voice. "Everyone knows you are a bad ass. Granted you are a bad ass, but can we just not have the theatrics all the time?"

Khan stared at him in amazement. "You think this is theatrical?"

"Yeah, a little," Kirk answered and took a sip of coffee, the cold dragon stare actually worrying him. Whenever Khan looked that way something bad happened.

Khan stood up, the cold dragon eyes going with him. "Capt. Kirk, do you know why Earth still exists?"

OK trick question. "Why?"

"Because I disarmed the Pakistani nuclear missiles that were pointed at India. Then I, as a favor to an ally, disarmed the Iranian nuclear missiles. No one risked his life to do that but me. And why? Because they had to be dealt with before I could make my move."

OK history told first person.

"I woke up this morning hearing my tanks," Khan confessed with growing emotion. "My tanks were modified Abrams, the best until the creation of the T-95s. I painted them black, the six that were my personal machines. I did it because I wanted them to know it was me."

"Black tanks would certainly stand out," Kirk agreed. He knew enough military history to know that tanks were once the weapon of choice in desert warfare.

Khan paused in memory. He could still see the dirt flying and hear the sounds of war. "Have you ever heard of the Battle of Taxila?"

"A foot note in history," Kirk said.

"It was my history," Khan told him passionately. "Do you understand now?"

"You feel lost?" Kirk asked, hoping he didn't sound to flippant. Khan stared at him, those damn dragon eyes that had faded for a moment returning. "I meant no disrespect."

"I won it," Khan said. "We crushed them. And without their nuclear weapons, they quickly capitulated. Taxila became my capital for the next ten years."

"When did it turn sour?"

Khan did not want to think about that. "Soon enough," he answered and absently rubbed the left side of his chest. Memory of that night was painful under the light of day. They had won, but look at him now. A self-made prince was back to being just a creature that real people used when they had nothing better to do. Meeting Kirk's sharp gaze, the dragon slowly bleeding out of his eyes, he said, "I've lost everything."

"Not everything," Kirk reminded him.

Khan permitted the faintest of smiles. "True."


End file.
